Adventure in the Wasteland
by Hawkeye116
Summary: By Ekobean, Shadowsister and I. Three fanfiction authors get sucked into Jak 3 via a green vortex. What will happen to the unfortunate authors in the Wasteland? Put on hold due to Shady's malfunctioning Word program.
1. A Face in the Mist

K'sani A/N: Yo, thanks to Shady and Eko and all the people who reviewed this story previously. I took it down for editing and now it's back up.

Disclaimer: Sigh. We don't own anything but ourselves. If I owned the Eggo waffles company, I'd order that only chocolate chip waffles be made, but I don't, so I can't. Yeah.

* * *

K'sani's POV

* * *

November 13, 2004. The very day I had been waiting for. Finally, after waiting for so long, the trilogy was complete. I grin with anticipation and excitement as I lay out the money for the game Jak 3. 

My cousin and I had agreed to pay for half of it each so long ago in June of the same year. I had decided earlier that year to stay for a few months with my aunt and my cousins. My cousin put down his half and the clerk unlocks the glass window on the display window of all the games. I wink at him as the clerk sets the game down on the counter.

"A pleasure doing business with you, little miss and mister. Come back any time to shop at Target," says the clerk. I thank him and take the bag from the counter, glowering with excitement.

My aunt pulls up in her van, and I sit down in the second row of seats to the right of my cousin. He is staring at the bag, deep in thought. I know he was wondering what it will be like.

"I can't wait to play as Light Jak!" he exclaims out loud all of a sudden. I nod, but don't reply. I can tell he is trying to get me to open the bag and read the back of the game with him, but I inform him that it could wait until we got home.

Upon arrival to the house, once we are inside, my cousin begins nagging me even more. I smile at his glowing excitement, and I hand the bag to my cousin. He rips it open and reads the back with joy. He flips it over to me, but I don't read it.

"You can play it first since I played Jak II first," I say. He needs no second bidding. My cousin runs into the television room and plops the game into the PlayStation 2.

"Do you want to watch the beginning with me?" he asks.

"Naw, I think I think I'll play later, there's something I need to do," I reply.

"Whatever," he responded, now fully concentrated on the television.

The truth is I want to type up a chapter of a story for FanFiction Dot Net. I am on the third to final page for a chapter of a story and I can't wait to complete another chapter. I sit down and type away, pouring my soul out in a word document.

It is nearly midnight before I finish, spell and grammar check, edit, upload, quick edit, and publish the chapter. I yawn, satisfied. Normally my aunt wouldn't have let me stay up late, but I am nearly the age of deciding when I get to go to bed; though for most people that age was about sixteen, my aunt trusts me enough to make my own decisions a couple years earlier. I know that I had overdone it this time, but I had really wanted to finish that story.

Strangely, I found myself sleepless. The house is incredibly quiet and dark. It must've been about 1:30 AM now. Thank God it was a weekend, otherwise I would've fallen asleep in first period at school. I creep downstairs looking for a midnight snack, and open the refrigerator door. My aunt's pet, Rover, pads over to me so as not missing a chance to get a treat.

"Sheesh, dog, you're good," I mumble sleepily. I drop a carrot on the floor. Rover gobbles it up, wagging his tail.

"Go lie down in your kennel now, Rover," I murmur. While still holding my snack in my hand, I close the fridge door. I follow Rover to his kennel silently and see him in. I pat his head and tell him to get some sleep.

I continue munching through my carrots when I notice a light coming from where the PlayStation ought to be. My darn cousin had forgotten to turn it off. I make my way over to the switch. Then I decide to leave it on and play it for a while.

I follow the ritual of changing to my own memory card and plugging in the controller. I flash on the television and start walking away to go sit on the sofa.

What I see on the screen is very odd. It is all greenish, but with a face sort of in it. I nearly flip as the face eyes me. It is just part of the game, that is all. But is it? I jump as the mouth opens and the thing speaks.

"You and two others are destined to see!" shouts the voice. I hear Rover whimpering, and I try to dash over to comfort him, but I feel myself being tugged somewhere. I scream. Rover barks again, and I grab onto the couch leg.

Rover comes bounding out of his kennel and whimpers once more. I grab the choke on his collar, but my grip falters, and mercilessly I am pull into another universe, the green face laughing the whole time.  
--  
My little cousin rushed downstairs. She swore she had heard something. Rover was barking up a storm, and I was nowhere to be found. She assumed I had simply taken a walk outside, being peculiar as I was. She thought nothing major of it.

After she calmed down Rocky and put him in his kennel, my little cousin noted the PlayStation's light was on. She flicked it off and shut off the television. Silently she made a mental node to remind me to turn it off when I was done. She went back upstairs, suspecting nothing. How wrong she was. How wrong she was.

* * *

Shady's POV

* * *

Joy! Happiness! Rejoice! Today is the day I, well we, get the game we have been waiting for. Jak3 is supposed to be out today. We finally find out what is going to happen to those guys. The story will end. Not that that is a good thing. Well, it is but. Eh, you know what I mean. 

I'm not really too worried. We live in a small area and no one knows anything. Which means that there will be plenty Jak 3's by the time we get to the only shop that sells PS2 games. Besides, I have such a craving for a McDonald's large chocolate sundae.

That morning I got up at 6am, as usual, to watch Rage. Rage rocks, especially the top 50, except I hate it when all the songs are bad, in my view. But then I just watch Saturday Disney.

I would have stayed home, but I was running dangerously low on books. I need to re-supply my stash.

My brother and I went into K-Mart. He goes straight to the games section. I follow slowly, glimpsing to see if there were any good titles.

"There it is. Excalibur." My brother gets down on one knee, puts his arm up and bows his head. It is just like Wayne's World. I laugh.

He grabs it and says, "Ok, let's go home."

He does this all the time. Whenever we get a new game or movie he wants to go home straight away.

After we got the game, Mum had done her shopping, and I had gotten my 'essential' equipment, we went home. My brother goes straight to his room to play the game.

I go to my own room. I want to finish the painting I had started a while ago and I need to practice my guitar.

My brother and parents leave later on for a check up for my brother, so I am left alone.

I paint as much as is humanly possible and practice my scales. I then remember the box of M&Ms that was in my drawer since last year. I place them into a bag along with a few of my cherry Chupa Chups. I want to go for a walk, to get inspiration for my next painting.

As I am walking out of my room I see a strange green light coming from my brother's room.

"What the hell!" I have a strange habit of talking to myself.

I decided to ignore it and get some more food from the fridge. I'm not going to be long, but I did eat a lot. It was inspiring, food was.

An eerie noise draws me back to my brother's room.

"The little bugger must have left the Playstation on," I say aloud, and walk into his room.

I make my way slowly to the PS2, as if I were scared, which I was. The TV is all green and smoky. A face is on it staring out at me, its eyes piercing me.

"At last, the second has shown herself!" the face says.

I was a bit slow at that moment of my life, which was probably the worst time for it. It takes me awhile to process what is happening and what is most likely going to happen. But by then it was too late.

* * *

Eko's POV

* * *

In my opinion, it was the fastest I had ever ridden my bike the entire week. The wind was blowing my curly brown hair backward as I peddled faster and faster out of town. The peddles on my bike gave way several times. God, I had to get a new bike. The chain was nearly rusted away on mine, plus I'd had it for at least four years. 

My destination was the local K-Mart shortly outside of my town. Normally I just rode around there for exercise during my time home alone, but this time I had a purpose for riding so fast. Today was the day that the trilogy-ender Jak 3 was released into stores. Though it was exciting to play the end to a perfect story, I still felt some regret at there being only three games.

The large, overly colorful "K-Mart" sign suddenly flashed in front of my eyes. I had been so lost in thought that I hadn't even noticed that I'd gotten here. I walked my bike over to the bike rack and locked it. I then made my way through the tidal wave of people that were always there on Sunday and entered the store.

The K-Mart wasn't exactly what I would call a "large" store. It wasn't much bigger than a normal Sentry or Pick 'N Save. Already knowing my path I walked over to the games section. I walked past the two aisles littered with cell phone parts and CDs. Finally I came to the games section. The thin glass doors wobbled slightly as I pressed my hand up against it. There it was, just out of reach. Jak 3. What I'd been waiting for that entire year.

I opened the doors and took a copy of the game, then walked over to the sales counter. An old woman with WAY too much lipstick was managing the counter when I got there. Without looking up she took the game, scanned it, and gave me my price. $49.99, good God.

I ran out of the store, hopped on my bike and zoomed off back home, not even paying attention to the cars I cut in front of. As soon as I made it to my house I ran upstairs after filling my dog Sally's bowl with Kibbles.

I opened the door to the, ahem, game room which I had taken to affectionately calling "The Den." I turned on my PS2 and put in the new game. After an endless wave of menu screens the game finally started...

(Five hours later)

Now, normally I never played games for that amount of time, but there's a first time for everything, right?

I left the Den and walked into my room across the hall and fell face-forward into bed. Already it was 12:00 AM. Just as I began to feel sleep take me there was a slight rumble that shook the wall of the Den. I got up and walked across the hall and into the Den, carefully scanning the area for anything out of place. I then suddenly noticed the hum of my PS2. I could've sworn that I had turned it off...

Drowsily I walked over to the small humming machine and was just about to turn it off when a voice broke the silence. I was wide-awake now and scanned the area wildly.

"Up here," it said. I looked up horrified at the TV screen to see a floating, green-glowing face looking back at me. "The third has arrived," it sneered. The face disappeared and was replaced with a pure glowing screen. I felt a slight tug at my arms, but the tug became a pull, and soon I was airborne, flying toward the screen. With one final scream I plunged face first into the screen. Then all was silent.


	2. Twilight on the Desert

K'sani A/N: Well, yeah, no one to thank but Ekobean and Shady for writing this with me. On with the second chapter, which I finally got around to editing!

Disclaimer: We only own ourselves and nothing else. The rest of it belongs to NaughtyDog, Inc. And we don't own Microsoft either, otherwise we'd all be filthy rich and we'd own NaughtyDog. Until we own a thriving software company, we don't own anything related to Jak 3, K?

* * *

K'sani's POV

* * *

I am in the middle of a tornado, circling around and around and around. I become dizzier by the second, but I grasp the green sweatshirt that I left on the couch yesterday. It had been sitting there before the green face had paid me a visit.

I jolt in midair, thrown wildly around on the whirlwinds that encompass me. I shout, and I hear the evil laughter. Oh, how I just want out! What did that stupid face want anyway? OW! Another gust of wind hits me, but this time with some debris in it. I cry out in pain, a sharp jolt arising from my forearm, but I heard nothing in response this time.

Suddenly I am torn out of the air and smashed face first in gritty sand. My ribs ache terribly, and my foot is at an odd angle, which causes me great pain. I cry out and a tear rolls down my cheek. Slowly I stand up.

A vast, lonely desert surrounds me on all sides. The wind is calm, but still occasionally blowing some extremely gritty sand in the hot, humid air, which swarms with bugs. The place, oddly silent and unwelcoming, glows in the heat and the sun sinking slowly in the far west. Or what I assume is west.

I wear only a tank top on and a pair of pajama bottoms, which are in reality thin cotton sweats. Nothing covers my feet, and I hold only a green sweatshirt. No water, no flashlight or matches, no food, and in the middle of a desert wasteland. The perfect nightmare.

I sigh and begin walking in the direction of the setting sun. The sky is alive with shoots of vibrant peach and orange; purple thunderhead clouds graze across the western sky. A midnight blue covers the east, and little bluish-white stars light up the sky. The stars are definitely unfamiliar. I know I'm not near home anymore. I must be in the Eastern Hemisphere. Oh great, I'm probably in the Sahara desert.

As the sun sinks below the low horizon, I don on my sweatshirt, mostly to keep the bugs away. My clothes stick to my skin; I perspire heavily, and my head feels extremely hot. Oh how I wish for a cold, wet facecloth. Or a jug of water. Or to just go home. Yeah, I think I'd like that last one.

A voice inside my head scolds me. I should pay attention to what is happening now, not go off and wander back home in my mind. A sound of moving sand snaps me out of my daydream and keeps me on the alert. I glanced around 360 degrees, peering into the shadows around me. Oh how I am scared.

A thing that glows a bright yellow leaps out at me, and I yell, startled. I whack it away with my hand, but it is no use. A long cut that runs along my cheek to my forehead from the creature begins bleeding. Another creature slashes out at me, cutting into my right shin. Oh the pain. I know my bottoms are torn at the knee, but I don't care. I turn to my right, and I look out over to at least thirty of the glowing yellow creatures. I begin to sweat even harder, and the blood on my face blurs my vision. I wipe it off and turn back to the direction of where the sun set and run as fast and hard as I can. I am a pretty darn good runner, and I don't run a mile in under 8 minutes and 25 seconds for nothing! Even though I am barefoot and I am hurting and bleeding, I believe I am now sprinting the fastest I ever have in my entire life. My old soccer (It's called football in the U.K.) coach would've been proud had he been here to witness it and had it not been a dire situation.

The creatures are slow across the hard desert sand, but they are persistent, and I feel like I've been running for hours on end when I see the first light of the morning. The creatures are gone, and I keep running, well, more like fast jogging, though I am exhausted and my feet hurt like heck. I look at the bottom of them while I am running. They are completely black, covered in dried blood and large blisters. Mom wouldn't be pleased, had she been there.

I slow to a light jog now, completely tired and deprived of two day's worth of sleep. When I first see the wall I think I am seeing mirages. But, no, they are definitely there! And there is a whole city there, too. Yes! I found an oasis! WATER!

As I enter the city, I look at the odd writings on a sign and I can't make out what the heck they are. They look like Greek, or Hebrew, or Arabic. Arabic would make sense because it is a very desert-like region of the world that speaks Arabic.

I have a friend that speaks Arabic. I try to remember some of her words.

All in all, I know how to say, "You are a poophead," "I like cheese," and "Hello." Not very helpful, but it might help me communicate with the locals.

I turn around and see a boy with curly hair and a girl in her mid-teens talking.

The boy and the girl are having a soft conversation, and then they both look to me. I shift uneasily. Why do they stare at me like that? I'm not a person from a freak show!

I slowly walk up to them, and greet them in Arabic, assuming that they are from the oasis. Both stare at me blankly, and I frown. The girl looks like she is Hispanic or Latino. I think I'll try Spanish.

"Hola." This time the girl smiles, and greets me back. The boy grins as well.

"Tu hablar Ingles?" the girl asks.

"Yes," I reply.

"Hello!" exclaims the boy. I nod in acknowledgement. I am exhausted.

"Agua? Sleep? Jubna?"(Water? Sleep? Cheese?) I ask. They nod, and point to one of the huts. I walk inside and collapse on a cot after I get a quick sip of water, completely drained. I do believe I slept for thirteen hours before I introduced myself to Shadowsister and Ekobean.

* * *

Ekobean's POV

* * *

I found myself falling in a swirling vortex of green light. Every inch of my body burned as I fell. I closed my eyes so tight that they hurt, wishing for it all to stop. And then it did.

When I came to I found myself lying on my back in sand. Sand? Where the hell was I? Wincing, I rose to my bare feet surveyed my surroundings. Oh crap.

In every direction there was nothing but sand and dunes. The occasional dust devil churned to life across the barren wasteland, but there was no sign of life. Hot wind blew in my burning face carrying miniature sand bullets into my eyes.

"Hello?" I yelled. There was no response. I didn't even hear an echo.

Gathering my wits, I looked toward the direction of the setting crimson sun. A vast palette of colors glittered across the sky like one of my dad's paintings. I would have admired it if I weren't so scared. Judging by how it was on the horizon, I was guessing that it was either morning or evening. So that was either west or east. With no other ideas in mind I began to follow the sun.

It wasn't long before the colorful sky turned a deathly shade of black. So it had been evening, therefore I was going west. Even at night the desert was hot. My throat was dry, my muscles ached, and my mind was beginning to wander. My thick layer of hair wasn't helping either. I knew I should have shaved it off. I began thinking of home. What would my parents say? They'd probably wonder where I'd gone and why. They'd scold themselves for not "being good parents."

I gave myself a sharp pinch. I had to stay focused. I had no idea where I was, and I didn't know what kinds of things lived in the desert.

My question seemed to be answered momentarily. I heard a sharp clicking not far behind me, like claws or pincers smacking together. I whipped around to find myself nearly face to face with a glowing yellow creature. It looked so familiar. Where had I seen it before? It looked almost like it was made of metal.

The creature gave a howl and charged at me. Screaming, I began to run, only to be knocked to the ground by another creature to my left. I frantically scrambled to my feet and sprinted as fast as humanly possible away from the glowing yellow monstrosities. I heard more clicking, more footfalls.

The creatures were running next to me, past me. They surrounded me on every side. I looked about for a way out, any opening by means of escape. None. The creatures began to close in, their claws clacking with anticipation.

There was a far off whoop and a roar of an engine. Two vehicles that appeared to be dune buggies roared into view. The creatures shrieked and began to flee. The dune buggy roared up next to me. A large man that held a large bronze staff looked over at me with two hard eyes. "You called?" he asked.

"Uh..." I stuttered, "N-no, but I...who are you and where am I?"

"You have a beacon, where is it?"

What? What was he talking about?

The pointy-eared man sighed. "Get in. We already have one like you, you show up on our sensors, but no beacon."

Still confused I loaded myself gladly into the buggy and we sped off into the distance. Soon we came upon a small city in the cliffs. The man said it was called Spargus City. Soon I was introduced to the girl they were talking about. They said her name was Shadowsister, but I could hardly believe that was her real name. She looked more like me than the other people of the city. She had normal ears. She looked to be Spanish, or of some similar nationality.

In the morning the two of us talked about our encounters. Apparently "Shadowsister" had had the same strange encounter of the floating face in the TV screen as me. Soon another girl joined the party, apparently named K'sani. She was wearing torn pajama pants and a tank top, and seemed to be rather worse for the wear. Wherever the three of us were, it didn't seem to be very friendly.

* * *

Shady's POV

* * *

My trip through the 'swirling green vortex thingy of nauseating nauseatingness' was nauseating. Honestly, it was like riding the Ranger, the Gravitron and all theses other thrill-rides, ALL AT THE SAME TIME!

After what seemed like ten grueling minutes of nauseating queasiness I was finally met with the relief of stopping, which was soon replaced by a pain in my hip.

"Holy mother of crap!" I yell.

I slowly roll off the rock penetrating my hipbone. I then lie on my side for a minute, to ease the stomach flipping. I swear I felt like throwing up. I slowly roll back onto my back, but something crept underneath. I realized I still had my bag.

"Arghhh!" I quickly sit up, causing a shot of pain to my hip, and frantically checked my bag.

Thankfully:  
My MD player was still in piece;  
All my MDs were present and accounted for;  
None of my Chupa Chups were crushed;  
The M&Ms box was slightly munched, but otherwise ok;  
The snacks still looked edible;  
I still had my precious bottle of water.

Now, phase two.

I place the bottle on the ground and draw a line where the shadow stopped. I waited for a while and watched as the shadow lengthened. It was evening. But it was mid arvo when I last remember!

'What have you gone and done this time?' a voice in my head says.

'This time?' I haven't done anything bad before! The worst trouble I ever got into was a lunchtime detention for not handing in my homework in year nine!

I tried to stand up but my injured hip caused me much pain, so fell back on the ground, tears in my eyes. No matter what I did, my bloody hip hurt.

"It better not be dislocated or fractured or something," I say aloud. If it was, I'm surprised at how little it hurt. I thought I would have passed out from the pain. Eh, whatever.

I got up as slowly as I could, trying not to hurt my leg, and started hopping in a random direction. I needed shelter, food and medical attention (just in case, it's not like I wanted my leg amputated coz of an infected injury).

I limped my way to wherever; my MD was on softly, playing into one ear. I was slightly paranoid. My surroundings were arid; there was nothing in either direction. I probably would have noticed if anything was approaching, but I had an over-active imagination. Oh, curse this imagination of mine! I kept thinking that Sandbeasts were going to spring from the sands and swallow me up.

Damn fantasy stories. Why did they have to be so good? And damn Emily Rodda for coming up with Sandbeasts in the first place! Hmm, I wonder what will happen in the next Deltora Quest book? Wait! This is what gave me the paranoia in the first place! Damn!

"I swear on the dirt that I'm standing on that should I ever find a piece of legible fictional literature it shall only be read by my eyes if it be a sappy romance love story! OW! Fucking leg!"

I really needed to find shelter and other life forms, preferably civilized.

'Hell no! Go nomadic tribal!'

Stupid voice.

I had a brain wave. I took my pentacle from a round my neck and held it in front of me. It hung there, unmoving. I don't usually perform spells and magick, but this wasn't really magick, and it was an emergency damn it!

I scanned though in my mind for a deity that might help me. And I found the perfect one.

Archangel Raphael. Angel of communication, healing, knowledge, and travel. Perfect!

It would help if I had my Angel card, but I had to rely on the magick. It wouldn't work, otherwise.

I asked Raphael for guidance and protection.

'Point me to the healing I need, to people who will care,' I ask.

I looked at the dangling pentacle. It hovered there for a second, and then did what I was hoping it to do. It moved! It moved to the right, ever so slightly.

'Go thata way,' it said.

Oh, thank you so much!

I start walking in the direction the pentacle was pointing. I slip my pentacle back on and continue walking, while crying. It was getting dark.

'I thought you liked the dark,' commented the voice.

No, you are thinking of shadows. And by that I mean I act like a shadow.

'You mean the way you don't get noticed?'

Yes. Isn't it a cool trick?

'Yeah! You can just slip away unnoticed and they would be none the wiser!'

Pretty much. And. Hey, why the hell am I even talking to you?

'I'm your subconscious.'

Well, you suck!

'Well, just look at what I have to work with!'

I kept on arguing with my mind for a while. At least it was something to do.

Oh my God, we sound so like Gollum!

'I reckon! How cool does he look?'

Cool! I'm so into CG at the moment! I'm thirsty.

'Then drink something, fool!'

I take out the bottle of water and drink a bit. Living in Australia had its advantages.

I was deep in thought, trying to ignore the pain in my stupid hip. I was half-blinded by tears, which was probably why I didn't see what was ahead of me.

I bumped into something that was also moving. Whatever it was, it was moving faster and was much stronger than me, and it sent me to the ground, landing fucked-up hip first.

I scream in pain and swear my head off. My body was surely to be crippled.

"Crap! Are you ok?" a male voice asked. He sounded American. He also sounded really concerned.

"NO!" I yell. I wasn't pissed at him, my hip hurt. Instinctively, I kick him in the shins. I was actually aiming much higher but I WAS in the ground.

He went to the ground, clutching his shin.

Score!

'Right on!'

Now that he was at my eye level I took a while to look at him properly.

He was taller than me, everyone always is. He had curly brown hair.

'Hey, that's Jack's hair!'

Wow, I know. Hey, what about that shirt he sometimes has?

'Yeah. "Jack lives here." Gold.'

I wasn't done with my 'introduction' yet. I grab my bag and whack the guy on the head with it. The rest of him falls to the ground.

I scramble to get to my feet and run in the opposite direction, but something grabs onto my ankle, which was part of the leg that had 'the hip.'

Once again, I scream my head off. I was bound to end up a mute by morning. Actually, that wouldn't be much of a change from how I live now.

"Are you ok?" asks the thing that is holding me to the guy on the ground. Serves you right!

"Yeah, I'm fine," he says, rubbing his nose. Mwahahaha-OW! Hip.

"Two down, one to go."

"Which one's this?"

"This is Shadowsister."

"What are we gonna do with her?"

"We'll take her back to Spargus and have her checked up. Either she's in a lot of pain or she communicates by making head-splitting noises." Hey, I resent that remark!

"Hey!" I yell. "Stop referring to me as if I were unable to comprehend what you are talking about and could you please grab onto my other ankle if nothing else! I mean, come on!"

The guy holding my places my gently down on the ground, next to the other guy.

The guy holding me was... odd. He had big ears. No, not big. Long. And pointy, like an elf or something.

Something makes contact with my arm and I scream for the more-than-once time. I notice that the 'normal' looking guy is trying to help me up. He gets me to my feet, trying ever so hard not to hurt me and begins to guide me to a dune-buggy type thing.

"You sure do scream a lot," he says, trying to make conversation.

As luck would have it, I was in one of my 'I-take-every-comment-as-a-personal-verbal-assault/attack' moods. I.e. I kick him in the shins, again, in the same place as before. His hands immediately go to the point of contact.

"What'd you do that for?" he yells.

"Coz I damn well felt like it!" I yell back.

"Will you two shut up!" says the elf-thing.

"NO! Now someone better tell me what the fuck is going on, coz I sure as hell would really like to know what the fuck is going on! And for the love of God, your excuse better make sense!" I scream my lungs out.

"Please, remain calm."

"I was gonna go for a walk and this stupid head appears and I got through a stupid thing and end up in this fucked up place! I don't know where I am and I don't know how I got here! AND my leg is fucked up! HOW THE BLOODY HELL AM I SUPPOSED TO REMAIN CALM!"

"Well how do you think I feel?" asks the 'normal' guy.

"The same as I do! You're just dealing with it by God knows what method!"

By know I was over flowing with tears and my throat was almost as sore as 'the hip.' The guys remained silent, probably staring at my crying figure.

"I just wanna go home," I whisper, my voice all croaky coz of screaming too much.

'Like you were trying to do at the Footy match!'

Not the best time for your smart-arse comments.

'Normal' comes up to me and puts a hand on my shoulder.

"I wanna go home too," he tells me. "But we don't know how to get there. We should stay here until we find a way back. And we should get your hip checked."

I nod and wipe away my tears. We get into the dune-buggy and begin the drive to food, bed, food, shelter, food, medical attention, food, more people, food, the odd human sacrifice here and there, food, food. Did I mention food?

I apologized to Ekobean, the guy I kicked twice in the shins, for kicking him in the shins. He appeared really sleepy. I was tired, but not sleepy. Stupid jet lag, vortex-lag, whatever.

When we got to Spargus, Eko waited patiently as I got my hip looked at by the medic.

"It's not bad. Your bone is just heavily bruised. You'll have to stay off it for a while," informed the doctor.

"Define 'a while?'" I ask.

"A few days, 'til it's completely healed."

"Yay!" My voice full of sarcasm.

Eko helps me get to the hut where we were gonna be sleeping. There were thick rugs on the floor and pillows scattered around.

"Aren't you sleepy?" Eko asks as he's lying down on a rug.

"It's only lunchtime," I reply, knowing he knew what I meant.

I sit down on a rug. Eko falls asleep quickly and I am left to entertain myself. I knew I should have packed a book. But that gives me an idea.

So I sit in the hut, Eko asleep close by, and draw my surrounding with as much detail as I possibly could. Random images of fantasy creatures make their way onto my drawing pad. I continue drawing and sketching, listening to my MD for inspiration, until early morning. And I had no intention of stopping.

This was either a very realistic dream or one hell of an adventure.


	3. The City of the Wasteland

Shady A/N: NOOOOOOOOO! I DON'T WANNA DO THE AUTHORESSES NOTES! -Chucks a spazz like a 5-year-old child- This is your fault! -Points at the accused and pushes Ekobean in to the never-ending chasm-thing in 'The Dark Menace'-

Ok, this is the part where Ekobean emails me and ask for an explanation as to why I did this to him and I say, "K'sani told me to!" and I laugh and I squirt baby/talcum powder in the air and throw a handful confetti in the air and blow a party whistle and roll around on the floor and start singing 'Holy Grail.'

Despite the fact that I wrote one third of this chapter I have no knowledge of what is going on and stuff. Seriously. Or maybe I'm just being mean coz I hate doing author's notes so much. AH! Logic! Psychology! AAHHHH!

Disclaimer: I am stupid and I do not know if we own anything or not. Ok, ok, I'll be serious. We don't own anything related to Jak and Daxter, Jak II or Jak 3. We do own Jak and Daxter and Jak II and we will own Jak 3, but not the real one. We own the game which is ours but not OURS. The game belongs to Naughty Dog but we still have the game, which we own. Well, not really, coz we don't own it we just. Uh. Crap. Never mind. We own what we own. If you can't accept that fact then you have some issues. One of them may be that you don't believe what Internet peoples say coz they might be lying. Actually, I thing you people are smart enough to work out what we do and do not own. Use your brains, dammit! It doesn't hurt. Much.

* * *

K'sani's POV

* * *

Ow. The pain is incredible as I wake up on the cot. It feels as though an evil force of some kind is shredding my insides to ribbons. Owchie!

I turn over on the cot, groaning the whole time, my right shin burning, and my spine cracking. Oho, the pain.

I look out at the hut. There are two teens; the very two I talked to earlier in fact, on the floor. One of them, the boy, is sleeping, and the girl is sitting on the mat, drawing something. I peer over her shoulder to see-it is a sketch of the hut. It is wonderful. I wish I could draw like that. But I guess my true talent lays in words and academics, not in the arts.

I slowly and quietly disembark off the cot onto the floor, watching the girl working quietly. I don't know why, but I feel as though it is necessary to be quiet, and to not disturb the girl. I sit down quietly next to her-apparently she hasn't noticed me yet, because she is still working hard on her sketch.

I look around in the hut, and I see a basin of water-WATER! I pounce for the bowl before I even realize that I've knocked the girl down. She yells out and wakes up the boy. Crap, I am such an idiot. Stupid natural instincts. They made me do that. I can't tell the others that, though. They'd just look at me weird. I hate these moments. I feel like such an idiot.

"BLOODY FUCKING HELL! OW-STUPID HIP!" screams the girl. She is sprawled out on the floor, clutching her hip. She must've hurt it. Oops...

The boy reacts much more calmly. He jumps up straight away and notices the girl cringing in pain and then me, standing by the water basin. He just stares... What should I do? I didn't do anything!

"Um, hi," I say nervously.

"Yeah," he replies, snapping out of the starring mode. I guess he thought I didn't speak English or something. He looks at the girl on the floor, and I smile guiltily to cover up for my mistake. STUPID ME, STUPID ME!

The girl speaks to me as I hoist her up and after I apologize yet again. "Oh, don't worry about it, it's just that I'm going to be a bloody cripple before I'm a legal adult!" she shouts. I cringe. She continues to scream.

"Oh don't mind her," says the boy. Um hello, I'm trying not to, but she's kinda screaming out curses to the entire continent if you didn't notice! "You should've seen how she greeted me," the boy says as he gestured to a giant bruise on his shins. Suddenly I felt scared for my physical being.

The girl continues cursing until the boy dunks her head into the water basin. When she emerges, she takes a gasp of air and calms down a bit.

"Thanks, I needed that," she comments. The boy nods. Then the girl looks over to me. "What the hell were you doing?"

"I'm really sorry. I'm, uh-"

"Never mind, what's your name?" The truth is I'm not sure if I can trust them, so I don't want to tell them my name. So I blurt out the first name that comes to mind- my penname from FF dot Net.

"I'm K'sani, or Hawk, if you will."

"That's an odd name," observes the boy.

"Oh, and Ekobean isn't, contrary to the fact that I like beans?" exclaims the girl. Ekobean? Where have I heard that before?

The boy, or Eko, should I say, glares at the girl and then goes on to speak to me. "I'm Eko, and this is Shadowsister, or rather Shady," says Eko. Hmm... Shadowsister and Ekobean.. Shady and Eko... Why do they sound so familiar?

'He-LLO? Are you ok, self? What the heck are you thinking? You know who these people are!' yells that annoying little voice in my head that criticizes everything I do.

I do?

'Well, Duh, I just said you did, stupid.'

I don't like you. Go away.

'And who do you think they are, smart one?'

Um...

'Let me give you a hint: FanFiction.'

Huh?

'You met them on a website...'

Wha?

'They're Ekobean and Shadowsister...'

OH! I KNOW! EKOBEAN AND SHADOWSISTER! I am so good!

'Ding ding ding and we have a winner, folks!'

Thanks.

'You're quite welcome, dimwitted.'

Humph. I still don't like you. Evil... thingy.

'Your insults are horrendous, self.'

Yeah, whatever.

"OH MY GOD YOU ARE SHADOWSISTER AND EKOBEAN! AHHH! You know, from the website, and we review each other's stories and OH MY GOD OH MY GOD I can't believe it's you... Can I have an autograph?" I shout. STUPID SELF!

"Uh, wait, you're Red Hawk K'sani, right?" Eko asks me. Well, duh! I just nod. Smile and nod, smile and nod. Repeat whenever caught in a tense situation that you don't know what to do in. That little voice rules.

'Why thank you.'

Shoot! Did I just think that? CRAP!

'Tut tut, such language!'

That little voice sucks.

"You didn't know who we were before?" asks Shady. What? You knew who I was?

"What? You knew who I was?"

"Obviously," she retorts. She was a lot friendlier over the Internet...

'Or maybe it's just that you caused her to flip and hurt her hip.'

Yeah, that's probably won't leave a good first impression... AH! Did I just agree with that little super-critical voice?

"Well, er, it's nice to meet you, then," comments Eko. Poor him. Just trying not to be physically harmed by Shady or I. What a surprise he's in for.

'You're violent.'

Yes, I know. I am also sensitive and rather evil toward my enemies. So far he hasn't been on my bad side.

"Um, are you ok? Your shirt is torn..."

Oho, there goes the good side for Eko. I wham his head with the water basin, giving him a minor concussion. Ok, maybe I shouldn't have done that, but harsh times call for harsh actions. And I didn't know that my shirt is torn... Hey, it so is not... It's not nice to toy with people like that. Heh, it was pretty funny, now that I think about it. I guess this guy isn't so bad...

Eko groans. Dude, I am sooo sorry... Thank gosh he's still conscious. He better get some medical attention for that...

"You need some medical attention," I say, and together Shady and I drag him off the ground and help him out the front door to get some help for Eko.

While I am practically dragging both of them to the Medical building, Shady apologizes to me. Ok, so it isn't that bad. Hey, did she just say something about a swirling green vortex of light? We three really are all in the same boat then. Figuratively speaking, that is.

"Is that really how you hurt yourself? You know, your hip?" I ask after a bit. She told me before that she landed on a rock on her hip when she came out of the "Nauseating Swirling Green Vortex of Nauseasion." Snort. Ha.

Shady responds by saying I don't look too good myself and where did I get all my cuts. I tell her about my lovely rendezvous with the glowing yellow things. Ugh, those things were ugly...

A young child with long ears runs past Shady, who says, "Hey, I just realized, those things sort of look like those elf-things from the Jak series.."

Yeah, I know what you mean. OH MY GOD I KNOW WHAT YOU MEAN! Holy crap! But it's physically impossible to... But there's no other explanation! It makes sense!

'Arguing with yourself again, dearest roommate? Humph. I should be the dominant personality!'

Shut up, I just had a breakthrough!

I drop Eko and Shady falls over with him as I gasp in shock.

"A little old to be worrying about boy germs, are we?" sneers Shady. Um, hello! I just had a breakthrough if you don't mind! And what's up with the 'boy germs' thing? That is SO second grade! And what if I don't FEEL like carrying a temporarily brain dead guy and a swearing maniac? What would you do THEN, huh? MWAHAHAHA!

"We're in Jak 3!" I say excitedly. I continue to explain to her how all the evidence points to it, and how it must be possible because of all the elves and the desert and all that crap.

"It must be possible! There must be a way! The elf-ears! The glowing things-" Hey, they aren't listening!

"I'm going to disprove K'sani's theory," states Shady. She pulls out a little pentacle thing that is dangling around her neck. She's, like, a Pagan, isn't she? I wonder what religion Eko is... Hey, Eko's awake!

"What theory? It makes perfect sense!" I blurt out. The two appear not to be listening to me. FINE! Don't listen! Get eaten by Metal Heads for all that I care! Then maybe she'll realize that I was right and she was wrong. And if she survives the Metal Heads, then I'll make her say that I was right in Arabic, but I'll teach her the wrong words so that she'll say, "I am a poophead," in Arabic. MWAHAHAA!

Hey, she just said I was bonkers. DIE SHADY DIE!

"Hey!" I protest. Shady appears not to have heard me.

"Step two: Commandeer a Dune Buggy," she says. Eko says something about stealing and how it is wrong.. Ooh! We get to ride in a dune buggy. YAY DUNE BUGGIES! I heard that some the models in Jak 3 have like turbo and rocket launchers. This is gonna be fun!

"Well, Private Beans, we're taking that to see if we can find out where exactly we are," says Shady. HA! Beans. Snort. That's good. From now on I'm so calling Eko Beans! MWAHAHAHA!

I have the strangest feeling that Beans really doesn't like me that much. Well, I guess giving him a concussion didn't help, but still, I don't think he liked me that much to begin with. I remember Shady and Beans and I had a 3-way email system starting back during the summer because we were co-authoring a fic together and he always seemed so distant. I feel a lot closer to Shadowsister, because she actually reviewed my pieces, where as Beans never really did, though he's a really good writer.

Eh, whatever. I can't wait to drive the dune buggy! And if Beans or Shady want to drive... Well, we don't want another scenario like Eko's, do we?

* * *

Shady's POV

* * *

Oh glory! Ok, first of all I must thank my art teachers throughout my years and whoever carried the artistic gene in my family. I think that was dad. The other two people are still asleep, K'sani and Eko, them people from FF dot Net. I am so bored. Stupid time difference type-thing.

I have an odd feeling, as if someone was watching me. Or maybe it is hunger.

Next thing I know, I'm lying on my side, clutching 'the hip' and yelling obscenities. Honestly, my swearing would make an Australian ANZAC proud, lest we forget. It was probably a bad idea to yell, as my throat was hurting again.

Apparently K'sani had wanted to go to the water basin and in her haste accidentally knocked me over. She apologizes over and over. I don't blame her. She didn't know I had a bad hip that hurt a lot.

I must have had a small bout of Schizophrenia or something coz the next thing I know I was gasping for air and my head is soaked in water and dripping down my back.

"Thanks, I needed that," I say to Eko. Sally, what just happened?

'Ommigod! You named me! I feel so special!'

I felt I needed to name my sub-conscious. Calling by what it is just a bit unappreciative.

'Why thank you.'

No worries. Now, recap please.

'Okies. K'sani accidentally knocked you over trying to get to the water basin. You start screaming and swearing for a full two minutes or something and then Beans dunks your head in the water.'

(Snort) Beans. You're mad.

'Thank you, I take that as a compliment.'

You should.

'I will. Um the people are talking.'

We went through the name exchange thing again, not that I needed it. It took K'sani a while to figure out that Eko and I were the authors she had befriended.

'I like this girl! She reminds me of me!'

By that I assume you mean 'us?'

'But of course!'

Hey, Eko said something. Oh this is hilarious. It's like he's trying to say the right thing or else he'll get hurt.

'Congratulations, you have now officially become a phobia!'

Really? Cool!

"Um, are you ok? Your shirt is torn..." says Eko.

Was he perving? Hey wait, no it's not. Tattered maybe, but not torn. K'sani doesn't look too happy. She grabs the water basin. Hmm, what is she gonna do with that?

Nice shot! K'sani whacks Eko in the head with said water basin. I wonder if he's dead. No, he's not.

'Beans lives!'

Ok, maybe whacking Eko was a bit over the top, but it was kinda funny.

"You need some medical attention," says K'sani.

She helps Eko to his feet and I go to help. My attempt is a failure as I end up leaning on Eko for support and K'sani is left practically carrying both of us to the med hut. Evil thing.

"Hey, look, I'm sorry for yelling and stuff. I didn't mean to go off at you. I just have really bad coping skills," I apologize to K'sani.

K'sani shakes her head. "No, it was my fault."

"You shouldn't blame yourself. You did knock me over, I'll give you that." I saw her take a look of guilt. "But it wasn't your fault I got sucked into a swirly green vortex and bumped in the middle of some random desert where I landed awkwardly on my hip, whose bone is bruised and I should really be staying off it, or so the pointy eared doctor said," I tell her.

"So," she starts, "You know where the Medical Building is?"

"Its that-a-way," I point.

We walk in silence for a while, Eko in between us still slightly dazed. That must have been some whack!

"Is that what happened?" K'sani asks suddenly.

"Hmm?"

"That, with you hip?"

"Oh! Yeah, pretty much. Musta landed on a rock or something. Actually, you don't look too good yourself."

She looks to see what I mean and sees her various cuts and scratches. Poor girl must have had a run in with something. Or someone... (Ominous music).

'Freak!'

Thank you.

"Where did you get them?" I ask, for I was ever so curious.

"This yellow thing came and attacked me! I thought I was gonna die!"

"Yellow thing, ey?" I use my 'is-that-so' tone of voice and stroke my chin with my free hand.

'We have found your sense of humor!'

A little elf-thing runs past us. I have to use my bad leg to stop myself or I would've trampled the toddler, if that is what the thing are called. A thought hits me. I don't think K'sani would understand what I was talking about. Wait, yes she would! We did meet in the Jak and Daxter section of FF dot Net after all.

"Hey, I just realized that these people look a lot like the elf-thing from the Jak series," I blurt out.

K'sani's reaction was not what I expected. She gasps in shock and realization. She lets go of Eko, who falls to the ground. I also fall to the ground hitting my head on his shoulder. This is Karma at work isn't it? This is payback for all those things that I made happen to him in my stories. Oh well, comedy has its price.

"Aren't you a little old to be worrying about boy's germs?"

"No, no, no! Don't you see? We must be in Jak 3. The green light! The game we got! The people! The yellow thing! It makes sense!"

K'sani goes on rambling, as I am left completely ignored. Ekobean, who is temporarily forgotten, stirs beside me and clutches his head.

"Good morning," I say cheerfully.

"I feeling like I was just whacked on the head with a water basin," he moans.

"Uh, yeah, that would probably be coz you were whacked on the head with a water basin."

He looks at me. " Did you...?"

"Oh, God no! That was all her!" I point to K'sani. "All I did was kick you in the shins!" I say in my defense.

We sit looking at K'sani; she is now pacing up and down, rambling to herself about things.

Us? In Jak 3? And I thought I was crazy. It's scientifically impossible to get sucked into a game and meet all the people and have them interact with you. If it were virtual reality (which I seriously doubt it is) then I would understand.

Well I guess there is a way to find out.

'Huzzah for the pentacle.'

Ok, ok! Lemme just get it off my neck. Now Sally, make yourself useful. Who should I call on?

'Eros!'

Eros?

'Yes!'

You are so perverted!

'How'd you know that is what I was thinking?'

Coz I'm your sub-conscious

'But I'm supposed to be the sub-conscious!'

Shut up and gimme a deity!

'Fine! Um. Ariadne!'

Perfection. Technically Ariadne was not a goddess but she was seen as a guide.

"Um, what are you doing?" Eko interrupted my train of thoughts.

"I'm gonna hex K'sani," I answer.

"You can do that?"

"Yes, but I'm not going to."

"But you just said."

"You shouldn't believe everything I tell you."

Silence.

"What are you doing?"

"Ommigod! De ja vus!"

"Come on, I'm truly curious," he begs. I love it when people beg.

"I'm going to test K'sani's theory," I explain.

"What theory? It's not a theory, and it makes sense! There is no other explanation for all this!" K'sani invites herself into the conversation.

"Well I'm feeling rather skeptical today and I want to make sure."

I dangle the pentacle in front of me like I did before and ask Ariadne for guidance. If we truly were in Jak3 then Jak should be here somewhere, shouldn't he? Well, that is what I intend to find out.

And there he is. In that direction which was either east, west, north, or south. Hey, I don't know directions ok! Cut me some slack!

"Now for phase two of 'Operation: Prove K'sani is Bonkers'," I say out loud.

"Hey!" K'sani is obviously offended, but seriously, she sounds like a person who escaped from a mental hospital without her pills.

"Um, excuse me Commander," I smile at the name Eko gave me. "But what is phase two of 'Operation: Prove K'sani is Bonkers?'"

"Well, Private Beans, phase two is 'Commandeer a Dune Buggy.'" (Snort) Beans.

"You mean 'steal?'"

"No. Commandeer." Stealing is wrong.

'So you are going to take something for military purposes?'

No, I'm going to take something so that maybe we can find out where we are.

'What if K'sani is right?'

I can live with the fact that she was right and I was wrong. Now, to the dune buggies!

* * *

Eko's POV

* * *

The cot wasn't exactly the most comfortable thing I've ever slept on. It felt like it was stuffed with rat bones and with sour apples. And there was a constant scratching noise in the background...wait, didn't Shadowsister have a pencil before I fell asleep?

Stupid Shadowsister.

The cot wasn't made any better with the fact that the bruises on my shins were at their worst.

Stupid Shadowsister.

Nevertheless, this sleep was probably the best and deepest I've ever had. I was dreaming that I was driving this dune buggy with the horned elf guy across the night sky, looking down on Haven City. Why the hell was Haven City in my dream? I really have to stop playing Jak II. Wait, that's why I bought Jak 3, Ah well...AH! Stupid Krew!

An ear-splitting shriek dragged me roughly from my bea-utiful dream. I sat up with a start to find Shadowsister lying screaming on her fucked-up hip and the other girl kneeling by the old water basin. It didn't take a genius to figure out what had happened.

"Uh, hi," she says.

Well, at least she can talk. I then look casually over to the still-twitching Shadowsister and touch her slightly with my foot.

"Come on, get up," I mutter. The girl leaps up and helps Shadowsister to her feet, even as Shadowsister continues to scream insults.

"Don't mind her," I say reassuringly to her, "you should have seen what she did to me." I pull up my pants to show her the ugly black bruises forming on my shins. I can plainly see her eyes widen.

Shadowsister still hasn't stopped screaming. "Shady, come on," I say, "Please stop? PLEASE?"

She hasn't even heard a word I've said. I groan and grab her by her black hair and dunk her face in the water basin for about ten seconds. "Thanks," she splutters, "I needed that."

"No problem."

So as time goes on, Shadowsister, K'sani (As we discover her name is), and I introduce us to each other. Really, what were the chances that three friends from FF dot Net would end up together in this weird place?

"Well, it's nice to meet you then," I say. I don't know how, but there is some strange voice in the back of my head telling me that my physical being is going to be damaged very soon. I shouldn't be surprised. Both these people have killed me via the Internet so many times, who knows how evil they could be in the real world?

I have noticed throughout our conversation that she is cut in several places, shirt torn up and fringed. She obviously has gone through a lot. Maybe it was those weird yellow things that attacked me.

"Are you alright?" I ask concernedly, "your shirt is all torn up and - "

Obviously she takes it the wrong way. I wasn't trying to be a pervert or anything; I was just making it clear that she did look worse for the wear. But by the looks on both of their faces they've taken it wrong. I look just in time to see K'sani's hand sneaking to the bronze water basin.

Aw crap.

The water basin hits me in the head with considerable force, and everything goes black. I can remember being dragged from the tent. I know I gained somewhere between Shadowsister and K'sani realizing that we are INSIDE Jak 3. But at that point there was only one thought, one SERIOUS thought going through my mind: "AAAAAAAAH! I SWEAR THAT IF I GET HURT ONE MORE TIME I AM GOING TO BASH THEIR HEADS IN!"

At that point I got up, trying to ignore the blood streaming from the side of my head. Shadowsister was standing next to me. "What're you doing?"

"I'm gonna hex K'sani," she replies.

"Really?" I ask a bit to eagerly.

"No."

"But you just said -"

"Don't believe everything I tell you."

Stupid Shadowsister.

"So...what ARE you doing?"

"Ommigod! De ja vus!"

Ga-roan.

"For real, what ARE you doing?"

"Testing K'sani's theory."

"What theory? There's no other explanation, and it makes sense."

"I want to make sure."

Her eyes close and she becomes silent. God, I can't take this. What else could have happened?

"Now for 'Phase 2: Prove K'sani's Bonkers."

"Hey!" yells K'sani.

"'Scuse me, Commander," I say sarcastically, "but what is phase two?"

"Well, Private Beans," she says, smiling. I cringe. I-am-not-named-after-BEANS! Why does everyone say that? "Phase two is commandeering a dune buggy."

I gasp. "You mean steal?" Damus is NOT going to be happy about this.

"No, commandeer."

Steal.

"So you're going to...ahem...take it for military purposes?"

"No I'm taking it so we can find out where we are."

"And...If K'sani is right?"

Shadowsister just shakes her head and points her finger forward and marches on, and we follow like stupid little ducklings.

Ok, I can live with this, I think, but if they hurt me one more time...(Snarl)...Grrr...


	4. Attack of the Marauders

Please note this chapter was written in October.)

**Ekobean Author's Note: So yeah, the girls finally got me to do the author note (under pain of prodding and Eko-bashing). So here it is. This chapter took us a while to think of, but I think we're doing well seeing as how Naughty Dog delayed the release date until NOVEMBER! Anyway please enjoy this new chapter and enjoy my never-ending suffering at the hands of a red hawk and a sister who's made of shadows, you sick, twisted bastards.**

**Disclaimer crap: We don't own squat. Bring in the dancing monkeys! -Dancing monkeys come in and dance- **

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* * *

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Eko's POV

* * *

The sun was high above our heads by the time we had figured out how to work the dune buggies. I was sitting in the back seat rubbing the ugly purple lump that was forming where K'sani had bashed me with that friggin' water basin.

Stupid K'sani.

I was gazing absent-mindedly back at the gathering of ramshackle huts and buildings that was Spargus City. As the city disappeared into the dust kicked up by our extraordinarily loud vehicle, I couldn't help but feel a sense of fear grow in my stomach. Here we were in the middle of nowhere driving God-knows-where without knowing if we had even brought the proper amount of preserves. Sure, we brought a couple of bottles of water and some cooked lizard, but that was it.

Shadowsister was driving at the moment, doing her fair share of wheelies and doughnuts. K'sani was sitting in the passenger seat bombarding Shady with insults and the occasional "You can't drive worth shit!" comment. Why couldn't Shady just accept K'sani's theory that we were in the video game? I mean come on; Damus was there for Christ's sake! As far as I knew there weren't any pointy-eared tribes living in a desert on Earth.

The hot sand that filled air was blowing into my face. I shut my eyes tight and ducked behind the seat, coughing any excess sand that had found its way into my throat.

"You sound like you need a cough drop, Eko," K'sani yelled back to me.

"Didn't I tell you not to talk to me?" I screamed back at her. K'sani shrugged and turned around.

"Holy shit! Look out!" Before I could even ask what was wrong, we were airborne. I could already tell what had happened. Shady, seeing a thrill had driven us off a dune. A particularly high dune, apparently.

We hit the ground with unbelievable force. I bounced out of my seat and hit my head on the metal bar above me. I fell sideways in my seat clutching my skull, teeth gritted.

"Sorry, Eko," Shady said sweetly. I just groaned.

Time passed. After what seemed like an eternity, we began to hear the distant sounds of engines.

"Oh no, it's Damus! He's following us!" K'sani yelled.

"I told you stealing this thing was a bad idea!" I yelled at Shady.

"We _commandeered _it!"

The engines were growing closer and closer. It was unbelievable how quickly the residents of Spargus were catching up to us.

"Keep going!" All of a sudden, several dune buggies pulled in front of us out of nowhere. However, they weren't like the one I was in. They were low to the ground and covered with some kind of tarp. The wheels were spiked and had an overall wicked appearance.

Shady brought us to a screaming stop.

The doors of the dune buggies opened up, and we all gasped in shock. We knew what they were. Marauders.

There were four of them per vehicle. Each one was of pale complexion, and about seven feet tall. They wore primitively carved masks, and bore double-sided halberds. Slowly they began to encircle us on foot, their wicked blades held tightly in their sweaty hands.

"Uh...Eko? You think you could hold them back?"

"What?" I stuttered. "How?"

"Oh God," muttered Shady, "Mounted machine gun, idiot. Look above you."

I obeyed. I had no idea how I missed it. Sitting right on the bar where I had hit my head was a long, rusted machine gun, amazingly similar to a Vulcan.

"Whoa..." slowly I raised myself up and clutched the firing mechanism. The Marauders stopped abruptly, staring at us. "Yeah!" I yelled, spinning the machine gun around. "Yah, who wants some?"

The Marauders looked at each other and then abruptly charged. Everything happened in a single blur. I was spinning around, gunning down Marauders left and right. Most of them were too fast even for the gun. They dodged left and right, swinging their halberds with savage cries.

Shady slammed on the gas without warning. Of course, I was thrown out of the buggy. I landed with a loud thump and rolled several feet. Why me? Why was it always _me_? I shook my head and rose to my feet, only to find myself standing face-to-chest with a Marauder. The enormous elf looked down at me through his mask and laughed. He began to raise his halberd. I ducked and covered my head, waiting for the fatal blow to come, but it never did.

I cautiously looked up to see that none other than Damus had stopped the Marauder in mid-swing. Damus was staring face to face with the Marauder. He smiled savagely and landed a punch right into the Marauder's face, shattering his mask. He then looked down at me and scowled. "Don't you move."

The battle was over rather quickly. Damus and many other Spargus city citizens leapt down upon the Marauders like lions on antelope.

The ride back to Spargus was long and silent. Damus' face was stony and unreadable. "We have a few questions for you three," he said, and then maintained his silence.

We were forced out of the buggy and pushed into a nearby hut. Damus closed the drape behind us and then lead us into the depths of the hut.

"Are these three friends of yours?" he growled, and gestured to the three crumpled forms lying on a bed in the middle of the room. We all gasped in unison.

"No way..." muttered Shady.

There, lying unconscious in the bed were Jak, Daxter, and Pecker.

"I TOLD YOU!" K'sani roared.

* * *

K'sani's POV

* * *

We locate the Medical Building and fix up Eko, who seems to have gained consciousness a bit more now. We find changes of clothes for all of us; I in dark canvas shorts, a sleeveless, light indigo tunic, and a pair of leather sandals. Of course, I save my green sweatshirt. Hey, it gets cold on the desert at night!

After sneaking a few supplies and a first aid kit for Eko, Shady and Eko and I head out to the area with the dune buggies. It's nearly high noon and we haven't made _any_ movement out of Spargus yet. _God_, where's a map when you need one? Or a compass, for that matter?

Shady and I argue over who gets to drive. Eko groans and puts his hands on his head as we bicker back and forth. The sun beats down on our necks and I long for sunscreen. I _really_ don't want skin cancer! But maybe the sun will not harm me, for I'm in a fictional universe at the moment.

"Come ON, I want to drive! I've _never_ driven anything in my life, not even a lawn mower or a go-cart or anything! Only a bike!" I complain. Shady looks at me rather nastily and shakes her head.

"You'll KILL us, for Christ's sake! Where as I am **older, more powerful, and more respected** than you. Need I remind you that you are the _youngest_ of us three?" she yells. God, I _can_ hear you, stupid woman!

"But I beat Jak II THREE TIMES! AND I almost got Hero mode, too! I totally rocked the NYFE races!" I toss back.

"Ah, but I beat it FOUR TIMES, AND I got Hero mode, so THERE!" Shady screeches. Ow. That hurt. Sniff.

"BUT-" I begin to scream back, but Eko cuts me off.

"JUST SHUT THE FUCK UP!" he shouts. His voice echoes all through the desert, and there is complete silence between Shady and I.

"Okay, K'sani, Shady's right, you're too young to drive. You get the passenger seat and I'll sit in the back," he mutters darkly, rubbing a dark purple bruise on his head. I shift nervously, feeling rather guilty and pitying Eko for being abused by such _cruel_ human beings as Shady and I.

I simply nod in Eko's direction and Shady hops into the driver's seat on the dune buggy. I hop in on the right of Shady and Eko hoists himself into the back. I offer my hand to help him, but he just swats it away. He must _really_ not like me, then. Perhaps sometimes I am much too _vicious_. Perhaps sometimes I should just let things _be_.

Shady floors it and we go flying, sending dirt up in the air behind us and around us. I hang on for dear life as Shady whoops with glee and does some wheelies and a donut to the left. I clutch my stomach, beginning to feel sick.

"Slow.. Down..," I state, but Shady seems not to hear me. I speak louder, but she just does another wheelie and whoops even louder. My head swims and my ears buzz; words that I do not intend to say find their way out of my mouth.

"You can't drive worth shit!"

Stupid uber-critical little voice. Shady is going to hate me _forever_ now. Now, normally I don't swear, but they sometimes seem to find their way out of my mouth and into the atmosphere, dissolving into the air and injecting themselves into peoples' brains. I wish sometimes my uber-critical little voice could _at least_ have a civil tongue.

But either Shady didn't hear or she doesn't care, because she continues driving. Eko coughs hoarsely and I recommend a cough drop. He yells at me not to speak to him. I shrug it off, but on the inside I am a tiny bit hurt that a person so close to me in a non-visual relationship doesn't enjoy my presence in a visual relationship.

"Holy shit, look out!"

Shady seems to have spotted a thrill. The dune buggy goes _flying_ off a large dune rather like a cliff and we are suspended in the air for a few seconds, watching time speed by us. And then the impact on the sand is so great that it causes me to go about a decimeter off the seat. Poor Eko bangs his head on a bar above him. Shady apologizes in a falsely sweet tone, and Eko rubs his head again, in incredible agony, as I can only presume.

A while later, distant roars of engines echo throughout the afternoon. I know who _they_ are.

"Oh no, it's Damus! He's following us!" I shout.

"I told you stealing this thing was wrong!" yells Eko.

"We _commandeered_ it!" shouts Shady. And so begins our wild chase in the desert. Or rather, Damus's hunt for three pesky humans.

"Keep going!"

The gang of Spargus citizens gets closer and closer, to a point of where I can actually _see _them very closely. I hear engines coming from the front, and my head whips around.

But in front of us are foreign dune buggies, low and spiked. In them are hideous, large _things_ carrying gruesome weapons. Spikes cover all over their tan armor. Masks cover their faces. They jump out of their dune buggies and slowly approach towards us. Most of them are at least _seven feet tall_. I can see the long, pointy ears characteristic of an elf sticking out behind their masks. So they are at least the same species as Damus. But _apparently_ they don't like us, for they have unsheathed their large, double-edged swords.

I have no idea of what the elves are, but Eko mutters something under his breath that sounds a lot like "Marauders." Whatever that means. I cower and a groan of utmost terror escapes my lips.

Shady seems calm in the situation, however. "Uh... Eko? Think you can hold them back?" she asks.

"But...how?" questions Eko.

"Oh, God," Shady mutters. "Mounted machine gun, idiot. Look _above_ you."

I glance towards Eko and notice him looking in awe at a rusted machine gun that looks very much like a Vulcan Fury. He looks confused and scared at first, then a horrible, confident grin comes on his face. He snickers, gunning down Marauders left and right, _killing_ them off without any second thoughts. I clench my eyes shut, tears staining my face, unable to take the madness, the warfare. _Make it stop!_

Shady abruptly slams down on the gas pedal, and Eko falls out of the dune buggy. I turn around quickly; worry overcoming my mind, my hand reaching out uselessly to my friend. And then one of the Marauders steps up to Eko.

It laughs evilly, and it brings its sword up for the fatal blow to Eko's head. At the last moment, none other than King Damus himself slits the Marauder in the chest and punches the Marauder's face. The skirmish quickly ends, and Spargus citizens let out a terrible, shrieking cry of victory over the field of dead. And there is something else there, hovering in the air, a milky purple substance. _Dark eco_.

The eco entrances me, calls me to it. I resist; it pulls harder. I get out of the dune buggy, oblivious to Shady's warning cries. I reach down to touch it.

I slowly bring both of my palms around the substance and lift it up into the air. It hovers over my fingers, sending little zaps of electricity into my skin. Any common elf should have died by now, making contact with Dark eco. But I am no elf. I am completely human. Perhaps it will take longer for me to die, then.

If I am dying, I do not show it, nor do I feel it. I wait calmly, but don't feel anything. I hear footsteps behind me.

Shady touches my shoulder and begins to speak when she looks at my hands. She does a double take, her mouth gaping. Shady points to my head and then to my hands several times. At one point her finger gets too close to the Dark eco, and it burns her hand.

She gasps in pain, stifling a scream, then blows on her finger.

"Put it down. _Now_," she commands. I move a bit and hear something clunk in my pocket. In my pocket is an empty lip-gloss container that I'd forgotten about. I pull it out of my sweatshirt pocket, shaking. It's too small.

I notice the eco in my hand contracts to a smaller size. Without thinking, I place it in the lip-gloss container and clamp the clear lid shut. Now the container looks like a little purple cube made of glass.

Staring at in wonder, it sits in my palm. Quickly my thinking comes back and I hastily stuff it in my sweatshirt pocket as Damus and Eko approach us.

"Don't tell _anyone_," I whisper out of the corner of my mouth to Shady, and she nods in response.

Well, at least Beans is okay! Shady runs over and gives him a hug. She must've not seen Damus kill the Marauder. I'd give Eko a hug too, but I don't think he'd like it very much after my actions from this morning. I have no idea how close Shady and he are; all I know is that I'm a bit closer to Shadowsister because I've known her longer. Maybe this adventure will bring us all closer together. That is, if we aren't killed in the process.

The ride to Spargus is silent, but I hardly notice Eko or Shady or Damus, just thinking to myself. _I can control Dark eco._

When we get back to Spargus, Damus leads us into a stray hut. The med hut, actually. There, on the cots, is proof of my theory. Jak, Daxter, and Pecker.

Anger and frustration boils up inside me. My face reddens, and I clench my hands, my knuckles going white.

"_I TOLD YOU!_"

* * *

Shady's POV

* * *

Stealing the Dune Buggy was one of the not so smart things I could have ever done. Actually, no it wasn't. It's so much fun once you figure out how to work the thing. Thank you dad for getting the Quad-Bike thing and letting me drive the Suzuki.

So there we were, driving through the countryside, I in the driver's seat, having the time of my life, nibbling on some road-kill (jerky), not really paying attention to the other two. I don't think they liked my driving, though.

Oh look! Big dune! _Big dune!_

Ouches, maybe not the best idea. And what was that sound? It sounded like a human skull hitting metal. I look back and see Eko on his side, not looking too happy. Oops!

"Sorry, Eko."

As I was driving I was thinking about why we stole this thing. The other two were probably thinking I wanted to prove K'sani wrong. Now, I watch a lot CSI and I don't ignore the evidence. The evidence said we were indeed in the game, I accepted that a while ago. I was making my way to Haven City. I'll bet nobody saw that coming. Damn it, somebody turn his or her engine off! It's annoying!

_Engine_? What the hell?

"Oh no, it's Damus! He's following us!" K'sani yelled.

"I told you stealing this thing was a bad idea!" Eko yelled at me.

"We commandeered it!" Get it right!

They told me to keep going, but I don't think it made a difference. Who got this dysfunctional Dune Buggy anyways? Hey, is that a gun? I look up and see these other Buggies driving towards us. They were different to the other ones. They were scary-looking.

I stop the Buggy. What are we going to do? What's going on? What was I supposed to be having for dinner? God, I'm tired! I wanna go to bed!

These dudes get out of the scary-looking Dune Buggies. They reminded me of Survivor. I think it was the scary mask things they were wearing. And they were scummy, I could smell them from here, and I think they were downwind.

"Uh. Eko? You think you could hold them back?" I ask.

"What? How?" HA! He's scared shitless. Wait, so am I!

"Oh God, mounted machine gun, idiot. Look above you."

Yes, that's right. There is a machine gun thing on the roof. I hear yelling from the roof.

"Well, he seems to be enjoying himself," I say to myself. Guys. You'd think there'd be a bit of variety, wouldn't you?

The Survivor outcasts were charging towards us. As the get closer, they start to look like Orcs and then like the Teletubbies for God knows what reason. Must've been the road-kill. God, I hate that Tinky Winky!

I get one of my ideas. I full on slam on the go button. In no time we are speeding off, heading straight for the Survivor/Orc things. I was planning to ram the ones on foot. The Asparaguses were bringing down scores of them; I just wanted to do my bit for the community. This was just another round of them Dodge 'em car things. Can I get a whoop, whoop!

I drive around for a few seconds, bumping along due to the Murderers. Hey, where the hell is Ekobean? Crap! Shit! Fuck! Good one, Shades. You prolly ran over the poor bastard. What am I gonna do now? I'm gonna be pursued by CSI for the murder of Eko, and then they won't be able to tie it to me so he'll become a missing person, gone without a trace, but they won't find him, ever, so he'll become a box on a shelf, a cold case, for all eternity. I have GOT to stop watching those crime shows.

Wha? Hey wait!

"Don't you dare jump out of this buggy!" I yell to K'sani. She looks as if she's about to jump out. "I already got a Cold Case friend on my back and don't need another!"

And the girl jumps out. Teenagers. Always doing the opposite of what you tell them to do. My goodness!

I stop the buggy. K'sani seems possessed by something or other. What really gets me worried is the fact that there are still a few Murderers lurking around. What if they shoot her and she explodes into a thousand tiny bits and those bit fly into my eye and blind me? STOP THINKING AND DO SOMETHING, SHADY! Hey, there's a gun.

Using the strategically placed firearm, I begin to shoot down some of the remaining Murderers. I fire two shots per person. Not bad, even if I do say so myself.

As the last of the enemy falls, I get out and run to K'sani. She's looking at something in her hands. I touch her on the shoulder.

"Damn you and your teenaged way!" I yell. "I could have run you over, girl! What the hell is that?"

It's some type of purple/black goo. I like purple; I wanted to paint my room purple at one stage. This goo in K'sani's hand kinda reminds me of...

"That. That's. It's. That. You." I point to her then to the goo then to her that the goo and so on. "That's. Creepy shit. Evil. And OW!"

The goo, which is actually Dark Eco, burns my finger.

"Put it down. Now."

I watch as she reaches into her pocket, pulls out a lip-gloss container and drops the goo into the container. I tell her to drop it and she keeps it.

Stupid teenagers.

"Don't tell anyone," she hisses. All I can do is nod my head.

Damus is walking up to us. Oo I'm in for it now. And with him is...

"Eko!" I run up and hug him. "So you're not a cold case after all," I say in relief.

"No. Apparently not," he says all confused like.

On the ride back to the city I keep to myself, to process all that happened. I steal a buggy, nearly kill a friend and shot some people in the heat of some random battle I'm not even supposed to be a part of. Not to mention K'sani has a tub of Dark Egoo in her pocket. (Snort) Egoo. I am so good at this.

As I get out of the buggy I get a dizzy spell. It was weird. I don't usually get any at all. I must be sleepy. Some random shoves me and I kick him in the shins. He glares at me and I glare back. He recoils. He must be scared, HA!

In the hut that we are led into are three blobs. A parrot/monkey thing, a weasel, and a blonde blob.

"I TOLD YOU!" K'sani yells.

Everything becomes fuzzy and I struggle to keep my eyes open.

"I don't feel so well," I state.

I feel their eyes on me.

"Shady?"

"Sleepy time." And I think this was the first time I have ever fallen asleep while standing up.


	5. High Priestess Seem

Shadowsister A/N: CSI RULES! WOO! Omigod and we're getting CSI: NY next year. This is all in relation to my living in Australia (The best country in the world). Did anyone watch the end on Survivor: Vanuatu? I did. It was good. Ok, ok, I'll stop. But then you'll never hear about the really good book I'm reading. AXISTRILOGYBYSARADOUGLASS!

This chapter branches out a bit. So you get a bit of variation, and not three different versions of the same events. In this chapter, K'sani and Eko are taken as ritual sacrifices by bottled-water-worshiping fake-blond Star Trek geeks in yellow lycra and I (Shady) host a sophisticated tea party for all the good lords and ladies of Glootenshtineberg. The gentlemen shall talk of business while playing strip poker and the ladies discuss Duke Dirk Von Lichtenshmut's latest fiasco, whatever that means. Ooo, what fun!

* * *

The Obligatory "We Don't Own Anything" Rant: We don't own anything. But oh how we wish me did. Especially all rights concerning this game. It's so stupid that it has to end. But, damn was it a good story line. I mean, seriously, if you look back at all the stuff that happened in the first game and read that Precursor writing on the edge of the map thing it was really thought out. Not to mention all the designs for the buildings and architecture and clothes and vehicles and all that stuff. But I still can't help but be reminded of mozzies whenever I look at those Precursor statues. (Mozzies are mosquitoes in Aussie language. Huzzah!)

(Shady owns Kal so you can't have him. Got it?)

* * *

Shady's POV

* * *

So, I wake up in some random place with this random architecture in random clothes when a random guy walks in. Wait! Random clothes! OH! MY! GOD!

"Who changed me?" I yell at the guy.

My clothes were really different from what I had before. For one thing, these were a better fit as opposed to the baggy things I had on before. Now, I had a layered dusty pink tank top type thing and some type of skirt in beige. Nearby are some gloves and wristbands and knee-high boots. And there is also some weird orange shiny stuff that was most probably armoured-like stuff.

The guy's eyes widen in fear. "I, I--I don't know."

I narrow my eyes and glare at him.

"It wasn't me!" he says.

I ponder for a moment and the say, "I am willing to give you the benefit of the doubt, and just coz I'm so nice."

He sighs in relief.

"So, what's your name, stranger?"

"I'm Kal."

"And what cosmic force possessed you to come hither and grace me with thy presence?"

"What?"

"Why are you here?"

"Oh!" he said, a little embarrassed. "Damas did; he asked me to check on you. And to take you to him when you woke."

Ah, so his high-nee-ness wants to see me. A lecture, no doubt. 'What you did was very irresponsible…' and whatnot. Adults are so predictable.

Sigh, "Ok, let's get this over with."

Kal helps me to my feet. I put on the boots (which were actually thigh high), the gloves and wrist bands, these two strap-y things on my left bicep and this addition to the skirt, which is basically four bits of leather that go over it. Then goes the armour, which is knee cap things, shin guards and only one bit of shoulder armour that segmented over my upper arm, for easy movement. All in all I look like all the other people I have seen walking around Spargus. You could not have picked me out in a crowd. It was so cool! He then leads me outside were I got a better look at him.

He was about twenty, a head taller than me. He had scruffy platinum-blond hair, almost white, desert-tan skin and dark gray eyes. He seemed nice; I think I'm gonna like him.

We reach the top of a scungy elevator system. It was the most beautiful scene I have ever seen.

The throne room was a network of ponds and drip waterfalls. Bridges over the ponds allowed for a passage to the actual throne. The gentle sound of water on water and the light mist that flowed in the air gave this area a serene atmosphere. These bowl-things that were on fire and indoor palm trees made it look even better.

"Nice, huh?" Kal says.

"Hell yeah!" I respond.

I continue to look around until I hear Damas' voice.

"Kal! You're here."

"Yes sir," Kal answers.

"And the girl?"

"Gawping, sir."

"With awe and not disgust. I'm impressed," I say.

"And you have knowledge in architectural designs such as what you see?"

"No, I just know what I like."

Damas gave an acknowledged nod. He walks down from his throne to me. He motions for me to sit by a pool and takes a seat next to me.

"You may leave now, Kal."

Kal nods and walks out of the throne room via scungy elevator. We sit for a while.

"How old are you, Shadowsister?" he asks.

"Sixteen years, sir," I say politely. Hey, just coz I'm arrogant or something doesn't mean I don't respect my elders. Besides, he's king and he knows this land better than me.

"When outsiders are of age they can earn their citizenship. We offer protection for ones who survive. Though we have never had someone so young fight for his or her citizenship," he says softly.

"Say what?"

"Technically, you are of age, according to the law. And, technically, all who are of age must fight for their right to remain in Spargus."

I was really scared now. 'Fight?' What did he mean by 'Fight?'

"I beg your pardon?"

"You are to go to the arena where you and the other outsider with fight to stay here."

"Wait, fight with or against?" I ask, absolutely terrified.

"All will be explained at the Arena. I will get Kal to escort you there."

Damas stand up and leaves.

"Ohhh boy." I bite my lip.

I slowly make my way back to the elevator. As I'm going down I wrap one arm around my self and start fiddling with my necklaces with my other hand, like I always do when I'm worried. The first things I think of when I hear the word arena is colosseums, man-eating lions, savage bloodthirsty uncouth Neanderthals and a hell of a lot of tomato sauce. And that movie, Gladiator. I am so gonna die.

I get to the bottom of the elevator where Kal greets me.

"Hey, Shades. How did it go?" he asks cheerfully.

"I'm gonna die," I tell him.

"What?"

"I have to go to the Arena."

"Oh." His mood immediately darkens. "I'll take you there then."

We didn't walk far when we stopped in front of these bi-footed lizard things with gimpy wings.

"What in God's name _is_ that thing?" I say.

"They're Leaper Lizards," Kal explains, "We use them to get around."

He hands me the reins of a brown lizard.

"Does it have a name?" I ask.

"No he doesn't," replies Kal, "This one's a newbie. You can name him if you want."

I stroke the lizard's head and look into its amber eyes. What do you call a male Leaper Lizard from some parallel universe? I could give it one of them associative names, like 'Amber' but that was a bit girly. Or an opposing name, like 'Fluffy' or 'Cuddles.' I ended up making up a name from nowhere. I mean, the people here have weird names; the lizard might as well have a weird name also.

"I'll call you Shrii," I whisper to my new pet. The lizard chirps happily in agreement.

"That actually sounds nice," Kal comments. "Does it mean anything?"

"No meaning. I just like the sound of it. It's not too girly is it?"

"No! It's fine. _I_ like it."

"Then, un-named lizard, from this day forth thou shalt be known as 'Shrii: Lord of the Deserts!'" I kiss Shrii and hug him.

"Come on." Kal mounts his own Leaper. "We should get going."

"Oh, yeah. My own gruesome death." I sigh and mount Shrii.

So off we ride, through the streets of Agrabah to the Arena. I wonder what they'll put on my tombstone. I hope it's something nice.

Outside the Arena I start to hyperventilate. Seriously, I'm in hysterics or something.

"I don't want to die! I have so much to live for! I haven't even had the chance to crash my purple bubble car that my parents are supposed to get me for my twenty-first birthday!"

"Shady! You are not going to die! At least not in the first part."

"Huh?"

"Listen to me. Stay calm, be alert and watch out for the lava."

"LAVA?" I yell as I am ushered out into a platform in front of Damas. Below me is the dreaded lava. Way below.

"What a time to get vertigo."

"Eh, I've seen worse," says someone.

I look around and see…

"Omigog its Jak and Daxter!"

Jak backs away at my sudden outburst. His hair is shorter and he has different clothes from when I last saw him. Daxter looks relatively the same, and most probably is. This was such a thrill. I was standing next to the most famous schizophrenic demon-elf thing and a talking weasel. Now, how many people can say they stood next to those two?

"Hi, I'm Shadowsister." I extend my hand, forgetting all about the lava and stuff.

"I'm Jak." He shakes my hand. WOAH! The thrill just got bigger.

"And this is Daxter."

"Daxter? That so does not do him justice. Hello, Orange Lightning!"

"You see, Jak," says Daxter. "She appreciates all my hard work _and_ gives me a title worthy of my greatness, and I don't even know who she is."

"Right on!" I yell, "VOTE GREENS!"

"Jak, she scares me."

"Hail all citizens of Spargus!" a voice booms. "Welcome to the Arena of death. Where we get to watch other people wet themselves in fear. These halls will once again test three newcomers, each fighting to prove their worth to stay among us. Let's hear it for Jak, his obnoxious talking animal and some girly-girl with no ears!"

"Hey!"

"Pecker, there you are. Where were you?" Jak asks in shock.

"What's the bird-shit-for-brains Spaniard wannabe doing up there?" I whisper to Daxter.

"Oo, that's good. I'm gonna use that."

"Hey Chimp! _Qué Pasa_!" I shout to Pecker.

"She speaks the language of my kind!" Pecker gasps.

"I do?"

"Pecker!"

"Oh, yes. To answer your question, Jak: Damas says I am to be his new councilor. He says my wisdom will serve him well."

"No kidding?" I comment. I was wondering was he was going to be doing. Ever since I watched those previews it was driving me nuts.

"And um… Damas also says that ahh… you three are likely to die in the Arena today. And he hopes your death is very ahh…"

"Will you stop that!" yells Daxter. "Damas can talk for himself!"

"He's right. You will most likely die. And, yes. Pecker is my new advisor."

"Yeah, well, Shady says that we will not die. Shady says that there are still a great many tasks to be performed, at least for Jak. In fact, Shady says that Shady is 100 percent positive that Jak will for sure walk out of the Arena, relatively unharmed. Although there is no guarantee that Shady will survive but you never know, Shady might surprise you," Shady says (snort).

"Do not argue with the king." Pecker flies down to me.

"Oh, _anda a morirte al desierto donde los pajaros puedan comerte los organos!_"

Pecker fumed at what I said. I have nothing against him; I actually think he's pretty cool. He just annoys me so. And his accent sounds so fake.

He turns around and addresses the savage spectators that sound as if they are actually enjoying our misfortune. "Let the Games begin!"

I discretely make my way over to him, hands behind my back, looking all innocent like the good girl I am (...bull shit...). Still looking innocent I stand next to him for a while, that is until I kick him off the platform.

Pecker almost shits himself, as does Daxter, but for a completely different reason. He laughs so hard he falls off Jak's shoulder. As I make my way back to my spot I see Jak trying really hard not to look like Daxter. I get to my spot and assume a face of complete child-like innocence.

"HA!"

We are lead to the centre of the Arena. All these platforms surround us, each higher that the other, like an obstacle course. Nearby is a shiny floating ball of some sort. Ooo, shiny. As I look around there are many more.

"You must get all the tokens," Pecker says from a radio communicator that also floats.

"What? These shiny things?" I pick one up and start passing it from hand to hand. "Ooo, shiny."

"Yes, now go get them!"

So, off we go on our jolly adventure! Smashing dummies! Climbing ledges! Getting thrown over ditches coz they're too wide for me to jump over! Collecting shinies! By the time I get back to the platform I am just about ready to fall over and die.

"I am SO unfit!" I gasp.

"The candidates have… won the challenge," Pecker says, shocked and slightly disappointed.

"Damn right we won!" But why do I get the feeling that that was not the end of it?

"Anyone can make a few measly jumps. Now lets see how you rate against the living," says Damas. I just knew something like this would happen. Damas throws a gun at Jak and I. Jak catches it, no problem at all. Mine, however, falls to the ground as I instinctively raise my hands to my eyes. I pick it up and hold it at arm's length.

"Re-adjust the matter-formers. Prepare the Arena for full combat!"

I give one of my gasp-y screams of disbelief.

"Prepare the Arena for full combat!" repeats Pecker.

"I just said that," says Damas.

Pecker says something, but I'm not sure what it was. I was trying to figure out how to use the gun.

"You mean we have to fight against actual people? With actual weapons? Who actually want to hurt us?" Daxter asks.

"Apparently." I tilt my head, still trying to figure out the gun. "So if that's the trigger…"

"Fine! Bring 'em on!" Jak loads his gun, a look of determination on his face.

"Alright! That's it! I wanna be on his shoulder!" Daxter points at Damas.

"Damn it! How does this thing work?" I yell. A shock wave blasts out of the gun. Kinda reminds me of the Scatter Gun. Wait, it _is_ the Scatter Gun. "Don't worry! I got it!"

"Watch out!"

A big, scary, smelly guy wearing a mask charges towards me, sword swinging. Impulsively, I scream, for a good minute or maybe more. The gladiator thing covers his ears at the annoying sound. With the butt of the gun I whack him on the head and then stab him in the crotch. He falls to the ground and I assume a smug look.

The smugness quickly fades as I see bigger, scary, smelly guys jump out onto the Arena. Having had some experience with the Scatter Gun, I wait for a couple of them to get within range and then I shoot them. Jak does basically the same thing, but in a more professional-looking kind of way.

Just when I'm getting into it I hear a ringing noise. Lava starts to spew in through hole in the floor. At this point I have no idea what to do. In a few seconds the whole arena will be flooded. What do I do? WHAT DO I DO!

"This way!" Jak grabs my hand and leads me to a block. He practically throws me onto it and then jumps on himself. The lava flows onto the battle field killing some of the stray big, scary, smelly guys.

Eventually the lava recedes and we are able to resume the all out gunfight for a few minutes. I look around to see how Jak is doing, only to see him visibly struggling to contain his inner demon, literally. He screams in pain. His skin pales and purple lightning zaps practically everything around him.

"Shit!" I scream and look for a place to hide.

I decide to hide behind a box, though unfortunately, I get hit in the shoulder by the lightning. It hurt! A painful burning sensation that spread quickly to the rest of my body. I can't move it at all; it is like it is numb, though it still hurts.

I stay behind the box, not really wanting to come out. A hand reaches out and touches my shoulder, which sends another shock of pain throughout me.

"OW!"

"Sorry," Jak apologizes.

"Cheese and rice! Could you have given me a warning before you spazzed out?" I scream.

"Eh, he does it all the time," Daxter shrugs.

"Something you're not telling us, animal man?"

"Oh, that's right. Damas is still here."

"He has been touched with Dark eco, my liege," Pecker informs his new master.

Again the voices trail off. My arm starts to fell better. I slowly start to move it, a finger at a time, then the hand then the whole arm. I should consider myself lucky that I didn't end up like those poor bastards we were fighting.

"…A gun mod is your prize," I hear Damas say.

"Wait, what just happened? What's my prize?" I can't believe I missed so much.

"Damas said…" Packer starts his usual repetition but I cut him off.

"No! Bad parrot-monkey thing! You no talk no more! Now someone give me a one sentence summary."

"From where?" Daxter asks.

"From when Pecks said something about Dark Eco."

"Jak could be useful, you get a Battle amulet, two more victories in fights will earn you a citizenship, you get a gate pass, something about the desert being 'less kind than I,' and you get a gun mod for your victory."

"Sweet." I grab the gun mod and attach it to the scatter gun in my hand. "Now I will finally be able to live out my childhood dream of becoming a deadly female sniper with exquisite taste in music," I say sarcastically. "Now, good men, I had an absolute ball but now I must bid thee farewell as I exit the Arena and be reunited with my dear Leaper that I have befriended in my short time here."

I jump off the platform and begin to make my way out. I see a shadow of a big bulky dude, and I can smell him. Jak, who wasn't too far behind me, starts to talk to him. All I got from eavesdropping was that the fat guy's name was Kleiver.

Outside, as I was tending to Shrii, something hit me.

"OW! Don't you be throwing stuff at me, Kal. I'll kick your arse!"

"Sorry. I just came to give you some stuff," he apologized.

"Presents? For me? Oh, you shouldn't have." I go all prissy.

"It's just a map and a scarf." He hands me my gifts.

"And I shall cherish them for ever." I hug the scarf.

"Yeah, well. Let me show you how the map works…"

Kal showed me how to read the map, what the dots meant and all the symbols. Plus the extra stuff he added just for me. Two dots, which were supposed to be Eko and K'sani, were at the edge of the map. It was just like the map from Jak II. It was so cool.

"Thanks, Kal. This'll really help."

"Don't mention it. Just stay out of trouble." And he walks off.

"Oh, I'll stay out of trouble. But I won't guarantee I won't be IN trouble."

Ah, the loophole. I always seem to find one. I mount Shrii and smirk. I tie the scarf around my head like a bandana, to keep my short hair out of my face. The remainder of the scarf trails behind me, brushing my knees every now and again.

"Come, Lord of the Desert! To the Dune Buggy Depository!"

At the 'Dune Buggy Depository,' The Fat Guy, Kleiver, ruins my plans by being there. He was tutoring a youngling on the different types of buggies. But, in a way, it kinda helped me out. As he was going through the specifics of each vehicle I learned that my best option was to use the one he called a 'Dune Hopper.' It was nice and big. And it had a rocket launcher type thing, so I could blast anyone who would try to stop me.

I tell Shrii to go and frolic until I come back, and the Leaper happily does so. I slowly and sneakily make my way to the Dune Hopper. Kleiver is none the wise, but then again he didn't look very smart in the first place. I climb into the buggy and wait for the right moment.

As soon as Kleiver is out of the Buggy enclosure I start the engine and drive out. After crashing into a few of the other buggies, that is. But afterwards I am good, even better when I see Kleiver waddle after me, screaming something or other.

So, I'm cruising along, my scarf around my mouth and nose to keep out the dust, following the map that Kal gave me and singing Robbie Williams 'Radio' for God knows what reason.

"_Listen to the radio!_

_You will hear the songs you know_

_Eh…something 'about a message here_

_You might have a job, my dear_

_Listen to the_—AH HOLY CRAP!"

I screech to a stop just before over the edge of a cliff into a death valley below. My heart is pounding inside my chest. I marvel at my near death experience. Then I notice a button near the starter thingy. And don't look at me like that! I don't know car talk! All it said to do was press hold and release. So that is what I do.

"I wonder…"

Before I know it, I'm thrown into the air as the buggy lurches a couple bazillion metres into the air. I feel like I'm gonna puke at the sudden gravity defying stunt. I remain motionless for a few minutes.

"Oh my God! I jumped from one platform to another!" I realize that I had performed a gravity-defying stunt back at the Arena and I hadn't known until now.

Anyhoo, after a few scientific calculations and whatnot, I figure I could get across the gap using the jump button. So I'm just hopping along over the gaps. It is fun. I eventually get to a larger island where the Temple is. I'm so busy looking around I almost miss another gap.

Quickly pressing the jump button, I fly through the air, flip and land on the roof of the buggy. It skids for a moment and I roll out, ending up on my shoulders with my back on a pillar, legs in the air.

"Whoa!"

I flip and look at the upside down buggy.

"Ehh…" I scratch the back of my head. What the hell was I supposed to do now? I _could_ just leave it there. It's not like it was going anywhere.

Inside, the temple is breathtaking. The walls stretch all the way up to the sky. It is dimly lit and has a sense of mystery. Looking around I see the only way in to the actual temple, and to where K'sani and Eko should be. Though there is a floating eyeball hovering above the entrance. It is looking into nothingness. As I approach it, it remains unchanged. Walking under it, I have the strange feeling that it is supposed to be looking at me, but look at me it does not.

I make my way through the Temple, passing more unnerving eyes and strange mozzie-like Precursor statues. Just when I begin to think I am lost, I spot K'sani and Eko, K'sani with her back to me.

I bite my lip to stop my self from laughing and creep up to them. Eko threatens to blow my cover with his laugh. I raise a finger to my lips in an attempt to quiet him down. He seems to be having a hard time containing his laughter.

I tap K'sani on the shoulder.

She screams in fear and falls back on her… uh… back.

"HIYO K'SANI!" I yell at her.

"SHADY?" she gasps. She's like having a heart attack or something.

K'sani jumps up and gives me a hug. Damas must have told them I was at the Arena, fighting. And I don't think the news of their Granny fighting to stay alive was very cheerful. I hate being old.

Eko also gives me a hug, and he's still shaking with laughter. As he comes apart I dig through my bag and produce my battle amulet.

"Check it," I say. "I won it. It was so cool. But Damas still wouldn't let me out of the city so I…uh… let's just say the Asparaguses don't look after their buggies very well. Once I got one off Kleiver it was easy to follow you. Not that Kleiver was much of a challenge, stupid fat-arse." I whisper the last bit.

"You drove through the storm by yourself?" some random dude asks.

"No biggie." I shrug. It seriously wasn't. Well, a grain of sand did fly into my eye, and it hurt.

"You must be quite a vehicle expert," the dude comments. Damn right.

"Right!" Eko snorts. Gasp, we have someone who doubts my abilities and must be punished.

"Quit it, Beans." (Snort) 'Beans.' I will never get tired of that.

He glares at me, but then starts to laugh, which confuses me greatly.

"Ok, whatever. K'sani, you should have seen you face when Shady snuck up on you." He laughs.

"Yeah. It was priceless!"

* * *

Eko's POV

* * *

Without another second to waste, Shady hits the ground with a thud and begins to snore pretty loudly. "Must be the different time zones," K'sani says matter-of-factly.

Damas looks over his shoulder at a scrawny elf in armor that looked to be about five times less than his size. "Take her to rest, and see to it that she doesn't leave." The elf nods obediently and scuttles over to Shady, hoisting her up onto this shoulder pad. Despite the fact that I'm pretty worried, I can't help but marvel at how such a little guy can lift someone that's about three times bigger than him.

"Hold on," I say to Damas, "what do you mean she can't-"

Damas immediately turns his stone-cold eyes onto me and I stop talking. "You will do as I order, with _complete _obedience. **Is that understood**?"

I just growl and turn away. I have been bumped, bruised, gouged, and prodded God-cares how many times today alone, and to hell if I'm going to take crap from some pointy-eared hippie. Although, this "hippie" does tower a good two feet over me…

My stomach starts to turn.

"Now," says Damas, wheeling on K'sani, "you must tell me about these exiles. You obviously are familiar with them."

"Well, they're –" K'sani begins, but I immediately cut in.

"Ah, no! No, no, we have absolutely no idea who these guys are. _Right K'sani?_" I say, blinking several times to make sure she gets the message.

Apparently she does. "Er…yeah. Yeah, we have no idea…yeah…"

Damas, looks suspiciously over his spike-armored shoulder at me, and then sighs. "Fine. Come with me then. These ones must rest for now."

He turns back to the building where the healer had taken Shady just two minutes prior. "Healer!" he shouts. "Three of your best Leapers, immediately."

Just seconds later the same small elf comes out with some of the weirdest looking animals I have ever seen in my life. They look more like dinosaurs than anything else. They are about as tall as me, and have makeshift saddles strapped to their backs. Two of them are a deep shade of green, and the other is a gray-navy blue color. Despite the fact that they are much larger than their handler, they appear completely docile.

"They look kinda like Flut-Fluts, don't they?" K'sani asks.

_Maybe they evolved from Flut-Fluts_, I think to myself, _or else NaughtyDog is just finally running out of ideas…_

Damas walks over to the healer and grabs the Leapers' reins from him. The healer bows and turns back to the healing room. Damas pats the Leapers' muzzles and walks back over to us.

"You are not to stray from me at any time," he states flatly, "Everybody knows everybody in this city, and if they see you, they will fire on you. You are criminals here, outsiders, and you will be treated accordingly. Understood?"

We both nod soundlessly. Without looking back Damas mounts the largest Leaper, a great green one and begins off. K'sani mounts her one; the smaller blue one, and bolts after Damas. She looks so natural on a Leaper. "Ok," I say to myself, "This should be easy, right?"

_Dead_ wrong. The moment my foot slips into the saddle the Leaper screeches and bolts, dragging me behind with one foot caught in the holster.

"OH HELL NOOOO!" I scream. I just recognize the blurred forms of Damas and K'sani speed by as the Leaper bolts past. I hear a faraway whistle and Damas' harsh, rasp yell something around the lines of _"Sien-con-tampa!"_ The Leaper immediately stops, allowing me to skid a couple feet after it before being stopped by a conveniently placed cactus.

A couple seconds later, the sound of heavy feet become audible. Damas' great hand hoists me up by the collar and plops me down on the Leaper's back. The leaper begins to scream again, but Damas pats its muzzle and whispers _"Baroosh…baroosh…"_ He then turns to me, and his kindly disposition immediately vanishes. "Don't– do – that – again," he hisses, and walks back his Leaper. Words cannot express my loathing at this point.

As my leaper trots along next to K'sani's I can't help but notice that she's snickering. "Shut up," I say flatly.

The ride is rather short. We go along at a steady pace until we reach the inner section of the city. We stop in front of a large steel door and dismount. As if on cue the door opens and we enter onto a rickety wooden elevator. The elevator wobbles for a second and begins to rise.

We enter the throne room. The place resembles a sort of oasis. Crystal-clear ponds and ancient rock surround it. Damas walks up to his throne and sits down, sighing. After a moment of some kind of meditation Damas looks down on us and frowns.

"I have no idea what to do with you," he moans. "You are too young to battle for your citizenship in the Arena, and yet too young to make your own decisions, a fact you made all too obvious after stealing that dune buggy."

Damas' face is beginning to turn red, and his raspy voice becomes a shout that is dripping with pure rage. "Not to mention precious food and water stores that are vital during storms! The only other source of fresh water is the Oasis. You three were lucky at not being caught in a sandstorm! It could tear the flesh from your bones, I've seen it happen!" My stomach begins to turn again.

"I should send you all into the Arena right now. Stealing another man's property is inexcusable. There is no crime in Spargus!"

K'sani is visibly shivering now.

"You two will stay in the Temple with my monks until you are of age. The Shadow girl, however, will fight like the rest of us for her right to stay among us. She will fight like all those before her, or die in combat, for the purity must be withheld…"

"WHAT?" K'sani and I yell in unison.

"She is of age, but you both are not, simple as that," says Damas, looking even more stony-faced than usual.

"If she fights, I fight," I say, standing up.

"Me too! I'll fight with her for citizenship!"

Damas' fist is clenched so tight that the bones are cracking. "You will go with Seem," he hisses through clenched teeth. "She is waiting outside with the Leapers. She will escort you to the Temple from there. I will consider your request to fight. But until then you will remain in the Temple. No questions, no arguments."

Damas' expression shifts from that of rage to of concern. "Stay with Seem no matter what out in the Wasteland, for things that live there are evil and powerful, a very bad combination. The Metal Heads and Marauders will tear you to ribbons. I may send your friend to say goodbye before she battles. Until then, young ones."

"Wha – What? You can't just send her to her death, it's wrong!" K'sani yells at Damas as I drag her back to the elevator.

"Forget it, he's not going to listen," I growl.

"Sure thing, _Beans._"

For a moment I think I may push her before the elevator comes to the top. "If I had my hunting knife…" I grumble as the elevator creaks up to us.

The heavy steel door opens, and we find what has to be the weirdest looking thing I have ever seen in my life. Its head is completely bald, and its skin is chalk white, save for yellow and orange paint around its blank eyes. "I am Seem," it says in a whispery voice. It can't help but remind me of the wind whispering softly through the bare tree branches back home. She's about three inches taller than me, and can't be much older than nineteen. And yet, her eyes are those of an elder person. The deep clockwork of her mind turns in ways that we normal people could never possibly understand, of centuries-old secrets lying deep in the ancient, flowing sea of the desert…wait, what the hell am I talking about? It' a video game, for God's sake!

We mount our Leapers and follow Seem through the streets of Spargus. After about a half an hour we find ourselves in front of (surprise surprise) another large steel door. This one hisses and opens to a large circular room filled with Dune Buggies. "Ooh," I say, rubbing my hands together, "Which ones are we taking?"

Seem gives me a look that I'm sure means, "Shut up."

Another set of large gates made up of a hodge-podge of different metals hisses and opens in front of us. Seem turns and hands us a couple of scarves. "Wrap them around your mouths and nose," she instructs. We follow her directions.

We direct our Leapers back out into the desert's scorching winds. Seem immediately stops and stares meditatively up at a large, blue-purple light in the sky.

"What is it?" I ask, awestruck.

Seem, her eyes not once leaving the object, responds, "The Day Star. It grows brighter and brighter with each passing day. The planet will soon face its final trial." She quickly turns her face away from us, but I can't help but notice that a tear has run down her heavily powdered cheek.

"We must hurry," she whispers, suddenly alert. "A storm approaches. If we wish to make it to the Temple before it starts we must travel hard now. Stay with me and don't stray off."

Seem bends down and whispers something to her Leaper. The Leaper grunts and speeds off across the dunes. K'sani and I gasp and urge our Leapers to speed up after her.

About five minutes pass. The desert seems to reach on forever, a continuously shifting sea of sand. The Leapers pant heavily under our weight; hot sweat drenches our palms. We feel the bite of the ever-growing sand even through our scarves.

"We must journey faster!" Seem calls back to us.

An alien sound cuts through thick blanket of moving sand. My heart freezes as I slowly turn my head to see the sand-brown, menacing Marauder-buggies speeding toward us. As soon as they're in range they begin firing on us. The rusted turrets swivel about as they fire deep crimson shots of Red Eco in our general direction. I hear a screech as one of Seem's monks' Leapers falls to the ground. The monk somersaults off of the dying beast's back and leaps catlike onto another passing monk's Leaper.

And suddenly the shimmering sea comes into view even through the storm's unmerciful winds.

"JUMP!" shrieks Seem, and without thinking, we direct our Leapers off of the cliff. The Leapers begin to flap their membrane-bound arms like miniature wings, and be begin to slowly descend onto a small sand bed just off of the coast. We don't look back as the Leapers' feet hit solid ground, and we hop from island to island until we come to the crumbling ruins of the Precursor Monk Temple, buried deep in the mountain's very rock.

The Leapers fall before us, puffing heavily. Seem turns to her monks. "Take care of the Leapers," she instructs, and then turns to K'sani and I. "Come with me."

The first room of the temple is massive, nearly two hundred feet tall in a cylindrical shape. The first thing I notice is a doorway guarded by a mysterious floating eye. As we approach it, the eye's catlike pupil shrinks and spikes flow up from the ground before us. Seem, undaunted, walks forth and utters a few indistinguishable words. The eye nods and disappears, as do the spikes. We travel up a staircase behind the door, passing more of the floating eyes and fountains of Dark and Light Eco shooting up from springs beneath the floor. I can't help but notice that K'sani is gazing almost longingly at one of the Dark Eco fountains.

"Come on," I say, nudging her with my elbow.

At last we reach the top, to find ourselves in what appears to be a library. It is filled with books upon shelves upon walls of Precurian literature. Seem walks over to a particularly dusty shelf and pulls out one of the books. With a shudder, the case gives way to another smaller room. Two other female monks are sitting at a low, polished wooden table, staring at some sort of dark idol in the center.

"Mist, Enigma," Seem instructs. The monks look up and nod, obediently rising from the table to Seem. Seem looks back at us and then to the monks.

"Take them to the Oracle," she instructs, "I have business in Spargus." The two monks nod respectfully and gesture for us to follow them. We follow without question.

The monks lead us down a long spiraling hallway. "The monks worship the Oracle," one of the monks said back to us. "We must wait before you Outsiders are allowed inside. Surely you shall need to clean up a bit before seeing the Oracle anyway." I have to admit she's right. Both of us are matted down with sand. I can't help but laugh inwardly. I must look a mess…

"Oh shut up," K'sani says, glaring, "You look just as bad." I laugh more openly and look at the girl before me. But then, almost immediately, I notice another dark shape looming up from the shadows behind her. It's…no…it couldn't be…

Yup, it is.

Shady taps K'sani on the shoulder, who completely spazzes out and slips, falling flat on her back. Shady is staring down into her eyes, laughing.

"SHADY?" she yells, scrambling to her feet. I can tell she's pretty happy to see her.

We both rush toward her and hug her, both equally dumbfounded at how she's here.

"But…how?" K'sani questions, completely baffled.

"Check it out," she says triumphantly, and holds out a small ivory half-ring in the palm of her hand. "I won it," she explains pridefully, "but Damas won't let me outside the city. So…let's just say that the Asparaguses don't watch their dune buggies very well. Once I got hold of one from that fat-arse Kleiver it was easy to follow you."

One of the monks shakes her head in disbelief. "You drove through the storm by yourself?" Shady shrugs.

"No big deal."

The monk raises a non-existent eyebrow. "You must be quite a vehicle expert."

My hand instinctively rises to the ever-growing lump on my head. "Right." I snort begrudgingly.

Shady rolls her eyes and says, "Quit it, Beans."

Something really nasty forms in the back of my mind, but it gives way to an irresistible fit of laughter that raises up from my gut. I burst out laughing, clutching my stomach and leaning on a wall for support. K'sani and Shady exchange glances that clearly ask, "Should we start running?"

So, just for a little payback, I shoot back "Man, you should've seen the look on your face when Shady snuck up on you, K'sani!" K'sani's face turns beet-red. Oh, this is gonna be fun…

* * *

K'sani's POV

* * *

Suddenly I hear a rather loud snore and a thud as Shady hits the ground. She's finally out. So the time zones are still affecting us, then. Poor Shades. She must be exhausted.

Damas grumbles and tells one of the healers to bring Shadowsister to a nearby apartment-thing to rest. Eko and I watch as the healer drags Shady away from us. Eko starts to say something, but Damas cuts in.

"You will do as I order, with _complete_ obedience. **Is that understood**?" he growls. Eko snarls back at Damas and says nothing. I nod.

"Now, tell me about these exiles. It is obvious you know them," Damas commands.

"They're--" I begin, but Eko interrupts.

"We have no idea who that man or those things are. If we did, we would tell you, _right_ _K'sani_?"

"Um, uh, oh! Yeah, sure…"

Damas stares at us for a minute with piercing eyes, and then shrugs.

"Fine then. Come with me. These ones need to rest," he states.

Damas opens the door flap and points for us to come with him.

"Healer, three Leapers here immediately, please," says Damas. Three rather large lizard/bat creatures with saddles and reins are led to where we stand. Two are a dark hunter green; one is a bit shorter than the other two and is a grayish-blue color. Damas mounts a green one and Eko and I follow suit, I on the smaller blue one. It reminds me somehow of the Flut-Flut from _Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy_. Hmm…

Damas turns back to us. "Riding is simple, just follow me. Do NOT hit any citizens or stray away from me, or you will be severely punished. You are both non-Spargans, so you have no rights whatsoever. You are criminals and must be treated accordingly. Is this understood?" A mumble for a reply is all he gets.

Damas bolts off on his lizard with Eko and I right behind. The ride is quite fun and enjoyable; my Leaper is easy to ride and maintain. Eko seems to have some trouble at first holding on, but then the ride gets easier for him. I love riding the Leapers and I hope I get to ride them again, if we're ever allowed even outside of Damas' sight and free to explore Spargus.

Damas' Leaper skids to a stop, and so do Eko's and mine. I dismount and follow Damas to a doorway. The doorway opens and a crude, wooden elevator hoists us up to the throne room. It is pretty good technology considering the conditions with the Wasteland surrounding them and everything.

The throne room has lots of rocks, plants and fountains inside, and a stone throne at the end. It is quite modest, and yet like the most beautiful of desert oases. Damas sits down in his throne, letting out a long, deep sigh. He rubs his forehead. Eko and I remain standing below the steps leading up to the throne.

At last, Damas speaks. "What will I do with you? You are too young to send to the Arena, but old enough to make your own decisions and act upon them, as so displayed in stealing that dune buggy, not to mention precious food and water stores that are vital during storms. We're on saltwater out here; every once in a while we have to travel to the Oasis for water before a storm. You're lucky you weren't caught in one, for they can tear the flesh off your very bones!" I shudder at that last remark.

"You! Newcomers. I should have no mercy for you at all. Stealing another elf's property! There is no crime in Spargus. You disrupted the peace. I should send you off to the Arena for combat to the death!"

I'm shivering quite a lot now. And heaven knows it's certainly not the least bit chilly here…

"Both of you will stay with my monks until you are of age to fight for your citizenship of Spargus. As for your friend, the Shadow girl... She will fight for her citizenship like all we've saved before her, or die in combat in the Arena, for the purity must be withheld…"

"WHAT?" Eko and I yell in unison. Shades might _die_?

"She is of age, but you both are not, simple as that," says Damas, looking even more frustrated with us by the second.

"I won't let her die alone!"

"Me either! I'll fight with her for citizenship!"

Damas groans in fury and tries to temporarily remain calm.

"You will go with Seem. She is outside, with Leapers to escort you to the Temple. I will consider what you have said about fighting with the Shadow girl. Until then, you will remain at the Temple. Stay with Seem no matter what out in the Wasteland, for things that live there are evil and powerful, a very bad combination. I _might_ send your friend to the Temple in a bit to say goodbye before she battles for citizenship, if there is time. Good bye until you are of age, young ones."

"Wha- What? Wait! You can't just, just, send her to her death! It's wrong!" I yell out. After all, when the Gladiatorial Games came around near the end of Rome, it showed a decline of morals and values, and that's one of ten reasons why the Roman Empire did fall.

"Can it, 'Sani," orders Eko. I look at him oddly. No one's _ever_ called me " 'Sani" before. Always Hawk or K'sani. Odd. Then a smile creeps on my face as we approach the elevator.

"Sure thing, _Beans_."

Eko freezes as he steps on the elevator. Oho, bet he didn't expect that one! Wait, I should be concentrating on ways for not letting Shades get killed, not ways to bash Eko. Gah!

Eko shakes his head and mutters a few curses and something about wringing a hawk's neck when the elevator opens. There to greet us is perhaps the most odd-looking elf I have ever seen in the Jak and Daxter series, including the freaky Blue Sage in Gol and Maia's Citadel in _Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy_.

The elf is a bit taller than Eko, though not by much. Her head is completely covered by a black thing, save for her face and ears, which are chalk white. A red and yellow pattern is on the Priestess's cheeks and nose; the rest of the elf's body is covered by armor and clothing, presumably Precursor monk stuff. The Priestess closes her white hands into fists, and she stares at us with an odd look of horror, pity and wisdom of things greater than we understand.

"I am Seem," the Priestess says. Eko nods in a rather curt manner; I make eye contact with Seem, but say nothing. I can hear something, almost, from the eyes… They are telling me something that I cannot make out nor understand. I shiver and cast my eyes down on the ground, giving the same curt nod of acknowledgement as Eko.

Seem mounts a Leaper and stares off to the side and up to the brilliant sky. The dark blue moon shines softly; the big green star from the _Jak II_ sky burns brightly as well. Other less important white stars glow in the night sky to accompany the moon and the green star. However, there is one thing that captures my attention the most--the star Seem is staring at.

It burns a purple-white color, incredibly bright. It seems oddly ominous and terrifying, though I do not know why. Seem is staring with such intensity and such sorrow… I don't understand.

"What is it?"

Eko's voice brings me back to life from my trance of the purple star.

"That!" hisses Seem. "_That_ is the Day Star. It grows brighter and brighter with each passing day. This planet will soon face its final trial." She glances mournfully, as if cast with death, upon the Day Star again. "We must hurry. A storm approaches. If we wish to make it to the Temple before it starts, we must travel hard now. Stay with me, don't stray off."

We make it to the buggy-port where we meet up with two more monks, who don't speak to us. Seem leads in front; Eko and I are a bit behind her, and the monks travel to the side and behind us.

The winds get worse; sands continually shift and fly around in the air.

"We must journey faster!" hisses Seem. I don't understand how we can hear her, but maybe it's some odd monk thing. Seem utters some strange words in a different tongue and our Leapers ride faster than ever.

OH no. Engines in the distance! Marauder vehicles, to be correct. They fire at us, and one of the monks' Leapers falls to the ground. The monk hops onto the other monk's Leaper and holds on tight.

We rush even faster throughout the desert, avoiding even yet more Marauders. Suddenly we come nearby the sea.

"JUMP!" screeches Seem and we direct our Leapers to leap onto a little island. The islands connect in a chain; we approach close to a looming hill on an island in the distance.

At last we storm inside the Temple, covered in sand and completely wiped out.

"Take care of the Leapers," directs Seem to the monks. They depart with the four Leapers, leaving Eko and I with Seem. "Come," she orders, and we follow.

We go through a large door guarded by an odd eye-thing. The eye thing blinks once, and then spikes shoot up as I go to cross. Seem mumbles something under her breath and the spikes retreat to the ground again, allowing Eko and I to pass.

We travel up a staircase, along several halls; past more Seeing-eyes and fountains of Dark Eco and Light Eco and carvings of Precursor robots and candles and such as might be found in a temple for the Precursors. Seem moves at a rapid pace, leading us behind a secret passage to a great tan hall with a table low to the floor; a few monks are writing out long, beautiful calligraphy Precursoran writings, perhaps in observation of the small, purple statue in front of them.

"Mist, Enigma, come, my monks," instructs Seem. Two of the monks from the table stand up and approach us.

"Take these ones to the Oracle. I have business in Spargus."

The monks bow to the High Priestess and motion for us to follow. I look towards Seem with concern.

"Do not worry. They will show you to your quarters and get some food for you soon enough. Trust them."

I turn back and jog through yet another hall to catch up with Eko and the monks. It is oddly silent and I do not like it. One of the monks turns to face me and answers my unspoken question.

"The monks worship the Oracle now. We must wait before you Outsiders are allowed inside. Surely you shall need to clean up a bit before entering to see the Oracle, anyway."

I glance at Eko and myself. The monk is right; we're coated in sand, and my hair is quite messy. For the first time in days, I see Eko smile. Or rather, smirk. He stifles a laugh and looks at the ground.

I glare at him. "Oh, shut up, you look just as bad." He's laughing now, and he's staring at me… No, he's staring over my shoulder…

Suddenly I feel something on my shoulder and I completely flip, scared like heck. I fall over and hit my back on the ground. The thing that snuck up on me looks at my face, grinning, her chocolate-brown eyes sparkling.

"Hiyo, K'sani!"

"_SHADY?_" I yell, so happy to see her alive. I'm _not_ fated to spend the rest of my days in the Temple with a bunch of silent monks and a crazy Priestess!_ Yes!_

I jump up and give her a hug. Eko does the same.

"But… how?" I ask.

"Check this out!" She holds up a small piece of an artifact or beacon of some kind. A piece of the Beacon?

"I won at the Arena, but Damas still wouldn't let me out of the city. So, let's just say that the Asparaguses don't keep watch over their dune buggies very well..."

One of the monks looks at her in disbelief. "You drove through the storm by yourself?"

"It was no big deal," Shady shrugs.

The monk raises his eyebrows. "You must be quite the vehicle expert."

Eko snorts. "Oh, _right_." He rubs a bump on his head and glares at Shady and then at me.

"Oh, would you quit it, Beans?"

Eko forms a fist, and then bursts out laughing. Shady and I exchange looks. "Alright, ha, you win! K'sani, you should've _seen_ you face when Shady snuck up on you!"

Shady grins and I shake my head. I think this is the beginning of a very _beautiful _friendship!

* * *

REVIEW! Please? It would really be a very nice Christmahanakwanzakkah Gift!


	6. Arguments and Abnormal Abilities

A/N: Red hawk K'sani here! Hello to everyone and thanks SO, so much for the reviews. We really appreciate it! Okay, this chapter is a bit like the last one, because it does branch out and we're not in all the same exact places at once doing in the same thing, so it isn't as repetitive as past chappies have been. This chapter is also a bit… darker, kind of, in a way. You'll get once you read the chapter. But when Shady and Eko meet the Oracle, you can be sure to get a hoot out of what the Oracle calls Ekobean… Heh… Read on and enjoy!

Disclaimer: We own Kal and ourselves. The rest of the stuff belongs to NaughtyDog.

* * *

K'sani's POV

* * *

It's been a few days and _still_ we haven't been permitted to see the Oracle. And when the sandstorm subsides, Shades is going to be in big trouble. I'm kind of amazed that she beat that Arena challenge. But then again, she had Jak with her…

When I asked her about it, she didn't really tell me anything, other than that he was there. Not in the mood, I guess. I sure wouldn't be in the mood either if I'd nearly been killed a few days ago.

One thing that has improved is that Eko's warmed up to me a bit. Though he still rubs his head on the bruise whenever I mention water basins… Ha…

Shady, on the other hand, has been kind of annoying the heck out of me. She kept nagging me about telling Eko about my special "ability." She doesn't have a _clue_ what it feels like, and it's _my_ secret, so I don't think she deserves to tell me what to do. She's not even two years older than me!

Now I'm sitting inside the entryway to the Temple, looking up at the heavens overhead. They're really magnificent in the night, with all the stars, even perhaps the Day Star. I wonder what that other green star is in the sky?

Someone taps my shoulder, and I turn around. It's only Shades. I guess she wanted to join me outside after all. Eko wanted to stay inside and look up some stuff in Precursor books or something.

It's really neat, reading Precursor writing. Eko, along with a little bit of help from the two friendly monks that showed us our rooms, Mist and Enigma, deciphered the Precursor alphabet to its English counterparts. It was really incredible because the written language is exactly the same as English grammar and spelling. But then again, maybe NaughtyDog was just too lazy to make up a complex new language. Ah well. At least the people of this universe and Shady, Eko and I can communicate through English. It was fun confusing the monks by speaking just Spanish to Shady. I think she's fluent in it, whilst I'm just really good at it in school. Still, it was fun.

"Yeah, Shady?" I ask. She has an odd look in her eye…

"I--I really think you should tell Ekobean!" she blurts out. Gah, be QUIET about it!

"No, he doesn't need to know… No one needs to know!" I retaliate.

Oh, God, here it goes, _another_ lecture from Shady! Groan…

"What is so hard about waltzing up to Eko and saying, 'Hi, Eko! Guess what. I can control Dark Eco and I have a blob of it in my pocket!'"

Ugh. "Why are you making such a big deal of this?" It's not a big deal… I think… I hope…

"We're in this together. He _deserves_ to know!" Bleh you!

"The fewer people know, the better."

"What are you afraid of?"

_What are you afraid of?_ Many things. Like if you'd have died in the Arena, or if I can't get back home, or if I die, or if Eko dies… But that's just the regular stuff I was scared of from day one.

_What are you afraid of?_ Rejection, that's what. He doesn't need to know, period.

"I am not afraid!"

"Then why won't you say anything?" she shouts.

Because I'm afraid, that's why. I keep hearing a different voice in the back of my head! Not a different person, but kind of like a conscience… If Eko found out, if even you found out… what would you both think?

"It's, um, in my best interest," I explain. Surprisingly, I am calm. Well, kind of.

"You have NO idea what you're talking about!" NO idea? Ha, right. Last time I checked, _I_ was the one here who's able to control Dark Eco…

"Well, I've got a better idea than you!"

"It's already screwing up your head!" she yells. Oh my God, what if she's _right_?

"Stop acting as if you know better! You DON'T!" I scream back.

"Y' know what, figure it out yourself!" I WILL!

I put my head in my hands and hear Shades stomping off, but I don't care. Maybe this thing isn't exactly the best adventure I've ever had, and these people _aren't_ my friends…

"K'sani, what the hell is going on?" questions a voice. Eko's voice. Oh, great, just what I need. Now she's trying to make me feel _guilty_!

"Nothing," I say, standing up. I walk into the interior of the Temple, headed towards the Library. Some of the Precursor stuff is very fascinating.

I continue walking abruptly to the Library, even though I can hear Eko jogging after me.

"K'sani, _what happened_?" Fly, fly, go away, come again another day… Or never…

I ignore him and keep walking. OH no. Why do I have to pass another Dark Eco vent? The stupid voice keeps pulling me towards it. I pull away, not caring.

"K'SANI!" Eko yells. What, does he think I'm deaf? Shady probably already told him… Ignoring his yells, I continue through the hall. I seem to be getting a bit angrier every step.

Stupid Eko, stupid Shady! Why did I have to be chosen to do whatever it is I'm supposed to do? I can't do it! I can't work a gun, let alone harm another effing person, and that is NOT my fault.

'… You're WEAK.'

Shut up. Jerk.

'Weakling, you're too afraid of emotional hurts! You're not courageous! You're not fit for this!'

I didn't choose to get zapped here, thank you very much. Stupid voice.

'You are unfit to wipe the sand off the other two's shoes!'

"I SAID SHUT UP!" I yell out randomly. It was directed at the voice, but I guess Eko thought it was for him. He's REALLY mad, apparently, because he pins me up against the wall and yells in my face.

"No, K'sani, I will not. You _know_ that Shady knows right from wrong, and I _know_ that something is going on. I'm not _stupid_."

Not him too!

"Get OFF me, Eko!" I demand. Damn him and Shady, they're both wrong!

"What is going on?"

"I said GET OFF ME!" I slash at his face. It begins to bleed. I look down at my hand and see… claws?

I shiver violently as Eko looks at me in horror. He backs away, speechless.

_What are you afraid of?_ This, Shady, is what I was afraid of. This.

I run past Eko and find what I'm looking for: a mirror.

So, I have claws and purple skin. But I look the same as before. I still have my brown eyes flashing before me, but they seem kind of… reddish… It's weird; I'm not another being, this is me, just me really, really angry, I guess… Me… _I can control Dark Eco. That is why I can control myself now…_

Okay, it's not that bad… I hope…

"Hawk?" asks a voice. It's Seem; I see her in the mirror.

"Yeah?"

"You and your friends can see the Oracle now. And, by the looks of it, it will help, hopefully…"

Ten minutes later, I'm in the room of the Oracle. I see Eko and Shady in front of the Oracle, and it is speaking to them.

"A power of the Precursors to help you on your quest," booms the Oracle's voice. Light filters down on Eko and Shady. Both glow a light blue color, though Shady's skin returns to normal. However, Eko still glows, and has magnificent wings jutting out of his back.

So, it looks like I'm not the only one who's been keeping a secret right now…

* * *

Eko's POV

* * *

"Sien-cal-tiempal…" I recite as I read the book placed on the wooden table before me. Both the monks, Mist and Enigma, nod approvingly as I scan over the endless lines of Precurian literature. The language sounds so fluent when spoken, like a clear unending stream.

"Continue," they press.

I strain my eyes and look at the marred, cracked pages. Endless streams of what my aunt would call "gobbledygook" flowed over and over in perfect lines. Nearly half the books in this library were records of the Precursors' achievements in their golden age. The construction of the Great Temple of Cair'Panog, the passage of architecture to the Lower People (the Elves)…the discoveries were endless.

My reading is interrupted suddenly by a distant flow of screams and arguments echoing up from the entrance hall. I snap the book shut and rise up from my stool, half running to the secret bookcase entrance. "Where are you going, Eko?" questions Mist.

"For some air," I reply. PLEASE just let me go without a lecture!

"Your studies are not yet complete," scolds the stricter Enigma.

"I know!" Without turning to them, I pull out the "lever book" and the bookcase opens with an ominous hiss. I pass the polished stone doorway in which the Oracle resided. Seem had been in there for days now without food or water, consulting the Oracle after she returned from Spargus.

I rush down the stairs to the entrance hall. My footfalls are like thunder in the hallowed walls of the temple, echoing both before and behind me. I reach the end and rush out, passing a Dark Eco and Light Eco Vent on either side of me. Though I don't let it stop me, I've been having a strange fascination with Light Eco lately. I've found myself just sitting before a vent staring at the white light issuing forth from the crack in the ground.

I shake my head and continue on. Right before I enter the hall Shady brushes past me. Her face is beet-red, her hands clenched into fists with her satchel thrown over her shoulder. "Shady, what's–" I begin.

"Shove off, Beans," she growls and pushes past me rudely. Now that was uncalled for.

"Shady!" I yell after her, but she's already disappeared up an alternate hallway. I just see the hem of her coat disappear behind the doorway. Stupid Shadowsister.

Whatever. I don't have time for Shady's moody rudeness. I enter the entrance hall to find K'sani curled in a ball on the floor before the massive doorway.

I stand over her and say "K'sani? What's going on?" She tightens and looks up at me. Her eyes are cold and hard. Completely emotionless.

"Nothing," she grunts, stands up and pushes past me. God, what is with the pushing today?

She takes off down the hallway where I've just come from. She's heading for the library. I jog after her. "K'sani!" I yell. She doesn't seem to take any heed and continues marching on. "What happened?"

I can see her head moving from side to side; almost as if she's having a conversation with someone only she can see and hear. As we pass the two vents she hesitates momentarily, almost drawn to the Dark Eco. After a second she pulls away, venturing up the hallway even further.

Now I'm getting mad. I hate it when people ignore me. HATE it! "K'SANI!" I roar. I'm getting close to her now, maybe five feet away.

Suddenly she explodes, "I SAID SHUT UP!"

That's it. That's all I'm going to take from her. I grab her by the shoulders and slam her into the wall so that she's facing me, pinning her in that position. "No K'sani, I won't. Do you think I'm stupid? I _know_ Shady knows right from wrong, and I know that something's going on. So what the hell is it?"

She turns her head away, her eyes tightened into slits. "Get off me, Eko," she growls.

"K'sani, what is going on?" I demand. I'm getting really sick of this now. If we're going to survive here we have to trust one another, and that means telling all of our secrets, and it's time for K'sani to tell hers.

"I SAID GET OFF ME!" She screams and slashes at my face. In a split second everything about her has changed. Her hands have morphed into razor sharp talons, her skin has darkened into a deep shade of purple, and her eyes…they're the most terrifying of all. Deep, deep red, almost with a glow of their own.

I back away from her/it, speechless, my hand slapped over the gashes over my face, which are bleeding freely. The demon before me looks down at its talons and sees the blood dripping from them. K'sani seems to come back. There is still the appearance of the demon, but her eyes seem to regain their deep, dark brown color. She/it looks up at me in horror and then begins to run faster up the hallway, quickly out of view, leaving me leaning up against the wall. I had to find Shady.

As I run up the hallway that Shady had disappeared into I continuously dab at the cuts on my face. They have stopped bleeding now, but they hurt like hell. As I run upwards Seem appears around the bend, her fingers touched together in a pyramid. "I was sent to inform you that you are now permitted to see the Oracle."

I nod. "Sure, ah, have you seen Shadowsister anywhere?"

The hallway leads upwards onto a steep, narrow platform at the very pinnacle of the Temple, overlooking the vast, rolling ocean of sand before us. This is where I find Shady. She is sitting here with her legs hanging over the side of the Temple. Headphones are latched onto her ears, and she's nodding her head to the beat.

I sigh and walk up to her, not bothering to hide the cuts. "Hey," I say, tapping her on the shoulder. Shades jumps and spins around. I'm actually afraid for a minute that she might fall. She plucks off the headphones and replies.

"Yeah?"

I nod and sit down next to her, looking her straight in her eyes. "Shades, is everything ok?"

"Sure, why not?"

I cock an eyebrow. That's barely an answer to my question. She turns her head away from me and looks out over the desert again. I look her over for the first time. Her hair is a mess, and her cheeks are stained from fresh tears. "You're a mess."

She looks up at me and smiles, "No really, I'm fine." Her hand comes up and vainly tries to wipe some of the stains away. She looks back at me and her eyes widen. I guess she finally noticed the cuts. "What happened?"

I shiver and try to come up with a proper answer. "Nothing…just a…er…disagreement."

"Does it hurt?"

Shit yeah. "It stings a little."

Her eyes glaze over as if remembering something, and then she snorts. Honestly she really freaks me out sometimes.

"Are you ok? Cause you know you can tell me anything."

She nods thankfully. "I'm ok. Just a little scared."

I smile and wrap my arm around her shoulder to comfort her. "We're all a bit scared."

She nods and returns the hug. "Thanks babe."

Suddenly I remember Seem's information and quickly give it to her.

Shady and I make our way down the winding staircase into the entrance chamber of the Oracle. A great, expansive room opens up before our eyes. A large platform is set in front of the Oracle itself, massive and solid, head like that of a mosquito. As we step onto the platform its dead eyes flash, and slits of pure white light flash down upon us, focusing. It greets us in a mysterious, echoing voice that reverberates across the expansive room.

"Greetings Sister of Shadows," it booms, and the lights move from Shadowsister to me, "greetings Echoing Bean." My heart sinks as Shady explodes into a fit of uncontrolled hysteria, rolling around on her back, clutching her stomach.

I cover my face. "Oh, someone shoot me…" of all the names possible I had to pick something with the word "bean" in it.

The Oracle interrupts Shady's outburst and continues. "Great things are expected of you. I grant you a Power of the Precursors to aid you on your quest." From out of nowhere a beam of white light falls down upon us. Both of us are lifted up in the air. A rapid, tingling sensation crawls from my head down to the tips of my toes.

We are slowly lowered to our knees. I glance over at Shady. Nothing really seems to have changed, but then I notice that this side of her was glowing somehow. It was reflecting some kind of bluish light. And then I noticed that that light was coming from me. I slowly look down at my hand to see that it is transparent, almost like a worked piece of melted glass. It was giving off a faint bluish glow.

But the biggest surprise came as I sat up. I felt unusually heavy, almost like I was wearing a loaded backpack. I look behind to see a pair of enormous, translucent wings jutting out of my back. They are limp and wet like a butterfly's after it has exited its cocoon.

Despite my wonder at my new gifts (and my confusion at Shady's un-morphed self), I couldn't help but feel a sense of horror lurking deep within me. Where the hell was this going?

* * *

Shady's POV

* * *

**-Flashback to 10 minutes ago-**

"_I really think you should tell Ekobean," I tell K'sani._

_For a while now I had been talking to K'sani about that blob of Dark Eco in her pocket. But she wouldn't listen no matter what I said._

"_No! He doesn't need to know. No one needs to know!" she yells back._

"_What is so hard about waltzing up to Eko and saying 'Hi, Eko! Guess what. I can control Dark Eco and I have a blob of it in my pocket!'!"_

"_Why are you making such a big deal out of this!"_

"_We are all in this together! He _deserves _to know!"_

"_The fewer people know the better!"_

"_What are you afraid of!"_

"_I'm not afraid of anything!"_

"_Then why won't you say anything?"_

"_It's in my best interest!"_

"_You've got no idea what you're talking about!"_

"_I've got a better idea than you do!"_

"_It's already screwing up your head!"_

"_Stop acting as if you know better!"_

_That pushed me over the edge. Being the eldest, I felt responsible. But I had to keep reminding myself that they were only younger by a few months._

_There was this loyalty clash. On the one hand I did sort of, kind of promised K'sani that I wouldn't tell anyone. But I didn't want to isolate Eko. He was one of us, yet he hasn't got a clue of what's going of going on._

"_You know what, you figure it out!" I scream at her._

_Grabbing my trusty, indestructible bag I storm off, pushing my way past Eko, who had decided to show up at that precise moment._

"_Where are you going?" he calls after me._

"_For a walk!"_

**-In the now-**

Looking up at the night sky from the peak of the Temple was very comforting. I was highly tempted to take this hand glider thing for a bit of a spin.

After the… discussion I had with K'sani I had to get away and vent my built-up frustrations. And what better way to do that than to just sit and listen to some hardcore rock music?

I hated this. Everything that was happening was so incomprehensible; I couldn't get my head around it. It scared me. I had no control over anything. Everything was foreign. There was no place for me to go where I felt safe, no sanctuary. The best I could do was to retreat inside my head.

Lying on my back, breathing deeply, I try to calm myself down. Closing my eyes, I feel better. I start to tell myself what I felt. Thinking of it as if I where talking to a psychiatrist.

I was afraid. I felt vulnerable. There is nothing to comfort me, to hold me and tell me it would all be ok. I had never actually feared for my life. There was always someone smarted and more experienced around me. Now I was alone and by myself. I had to look after myself, as if I were an adult. That's too big a step. I wanted my childhood. I didn't want to fight for my life and the lives of others. It was too big a responsibility. I had only ever looked after my brother. And that was in our own house for a few hours, and he can practically take care of himself. Here I was alone, with all these new rules, new dangers. I couldn't cope with that. And on top of that K'sani is Dark Eco-touched. Who knows what could happen?

And what was with that head!

I finally break down. Tears roll down the side of my face and into my hair. At least gravity still worked right. My breath is jerky and uneven. I would give anything to be in my room.

I don't know for how long I was crying, or how long I was up here. All I know was that the tears never stopped, they just became silent.

For a while now I had been singing along to most of the songs on the MD. Right now was _My Immortal_. It didn't really help; it's such a sad song.

"… _These wounds won't seem to heal,  
This pain is just too real,  
There's just too much that time cannot erase._

_When you cried I'd wipe away all of you tears.  
When you'd scream I'd fight away all of your fears.  
I held your…"_

"Hey."

I jump about a metre into the air. I was kind of hoping no one would see me like this. Eko had somehow managed to get to my hiding place.

"Yeah?" I barely whisper.

Eko sits down next to me, looking at me with worry. "You ok, Shades?"

"Sure, why not," I say, not really thinking of what he asked me. What did he ask me? Was it if I wanted some Yorkshire pudding, coz I could really go for some right about now.

"You look a mess." He frowns.

"No, really, I'm ok." I try to wipe away some of the tears. Now it's my turn to frown.

There is a big gash on his face. It doesn't look too deep, but it still looks painful.

"What happened!" I ask in shock.

"Nothin'. Just a… disagreement."

I bite my lip. Had K'sani really injured Eko?

"Does it hurt?"

"Eh, it stings little." He shrugs.

At that moment I was reminded of _Kung Pow_, really weird movie. Namely that bit where the Chosen One's hands are all bloodied and Ling asks if it hurt and he says no and then she starts putting all these thing it his hands like lemon juice and salt and mercury from a thermometer. I snort at the memory.

"Are you sure you're ok?" he asks. I nod. "'Cause you know you tell me anything."

I nod again. "I'm ok. I'm just a bit scared."

He smiles and gives me a hug.

"I think we're all a bit scared."

"Thanks babe."

"Yeah, well, Seem said something like, 'You are now permitted to view the Oracle.'"

I laugh. "That thing is delusional or something."

So we make our way down to the ground where one of the monks is waiting for us. He leads us though the Temple complex. The walls are covered in statues of precursor robots. I still reckon they look like mozzies.

We arrive in a large circular-ish room with a huge ginormous mozzie thing in the centre. We are level with the torso, if that's what it is. The rest of its body was all the way down below us. It was so alien.

Suddenly, its big googly eyes crack open, revealing a glowing blue light, and starts to speak in that voice.

"Greetings, Sister of the Shadows. Greetings, Echoing Bean."

I cannot to contain my laughter. I fall to the ground, clutching my stomach. "Echoing Bean?" I manage to gasp. That was the most stupid name! It was FUNNY!

"Oh God, kill me now," mumbles Eko.

I finally manage to control myself; the Oracle begins to speak again.

"Great thing are expected of you. I give you a power of the Precursors to help you on your quest."

A beam of light falls upon us. I feel all warm and fuzzy. I can't remember the last time I felt like this. I felt graceful and a hell of a lot older for some reason.

I glance over at Eko. I was surprised to see him a translucent blue and glowing. Weird tentacle-like wings sticking out of his back. I look at my own hands. They are still solid looking, and I can't help but feel a little disappointed.

* * *

K'sani: Please continue reviewing, and feel free to check out any of Ekobean's, Shadowsister's, and my works on fanfiction! BYES! Don't forget to review:)


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